Jaune, the Charismatic Gamer
by Random O' Panda
Summary: So, one day I'm throwing up on my way to Beacon. The next day, I'm being flung from a cliff and wind up becoming a team leader. Now I'm finding out that my games have become real! Gamer Jaune
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I apologize for the metric ton of text you're about to read before we even get to the story, but there's a lot of information you need to know. If you think I missed anything important, feel free to leave a review and I'll answer it in the next chapter. PMs work as well, of course.**

 **First, this story starts right after initiation; this was arranged so that Jaune had no time prior to Beacon to get used to his Semblance. Sadly for him, this comes with the side effect of his first impressions being set in stone: he threw up on Yang's shoes, failed to impress Weiss, got picked by Pyrrha because he didn't know of her, etc.** **He's got to figure things out as he goes.**

 **Second, the power scale. So many Gamer Jaune stories have him as a physical god compared to canon. "Jaune sneezed, so the city block got destroyed." None of that here. The Jaune in this story has no secret ties to past royalty, nor is he a reincarnation of some divine being; he's just a guy that faked his way into Beacon, and the Remnant Gods said, "Hey, you know what would be funny?"** **Every character is written as faithfully to canon as I can manage given the setting** **, Jaune just has a boost**.

 **Next, romantic pairings: I'm keeping any and all pairings a secret at this time for multiple reasons. The easy reason is for the mystery of it; the slightly more complicated reason is that while I have a main pairing I'll be going for, I'm leaving it open to change in case the narrative transforms into something that won't allow said pairing. The only things I can confirm about this topic is that there won't be a harem (because I don't think I can write a convincing poly-amorous relationship) and that it will not be Jaune/Velvet (because I just finished writing one such story, Picture Perfect.)**

 **Lastly, this story is rated T for now, but is subject to change to M later on down the line.**

 **Finally, let's get started!** **Have fun!**

X

Exhausted from the long day, I jumped face first onto my new bed and pillow. Around me I heard the sounds of my new teammates doing what I just did, causing me to chuckle into my pillow. Team JNPR; that was team that I'd be a part of for the next four years, maybe longer if they connected well with each other.

 _"...Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc."_

My mirth disappeared and was replaced by a shade of panic. What had Ozpin been thinking, making me the team leader? Were the forged papers I submitted that good? I made a mental note to both hug and slap the guy I paid to make them.

As I stewed in my own thoughts, Pyrrha called out to me from her bed. "Jaune, is it really okay that we only unpacked our clothes? There is still a good number of boxes to take care of."

I turned my head to look at her. Even without her makeup on, her emerald eyes were still highlighted by her veil of sharp-red hair. Weiss had mentioned her winning some tournament back-to-back, but with no armor or weapons equipped she looked just like any other teenager. "The clothes were just the most important thing to take care of. If you want to keep unpacking you can, Pyrrha, but personally I'm exhausted from everything. Aren't you?"

"Well..." She looked over to where her boxes were and gave some type of grunt. "...Point taken. Good night, everyone."

Nora gave a tired wave from her bed. Ren had previously assured me that the ginger-haired girl was quite the morning person, so waking up in time for classes wouldn't be an issue; judging by how she acted all day, I didn't doubt it. Said ninja clicked off the light in the room and we all began to drift off to sleep. Tomorrow would be our first day of classes, and, despite my fear of my transcripts being discovered as fake, I had to admit that I was excited for what was to come.

" _I can succeed here_ ," I said to myself. _"I can become a Hunstman, a hero."_ With my heart open to the possibilities the future held, I let the darkness of sweet dreams take me away.

 _My eyes opened and I took in the scene around me. Above my head was a sea of black without stars or a moon to light the scene, but that didn't mean there wasn't a light source; illuminated below me was the very thing I was standing on, a flat, stained glass structure that featured a rather curious image. In the dead center of picture was me, from the torso up, with my eyes closed and holding what looked like a heart in both hands. Around me stood all of RWBY and the rest of JNPR, every one of them armed and facing off against some unknown, off-screen foe._

 _With a start, I realized that I was fully aware of myself and took a moment to examine my own appearance: I had on my hoodie and armor set, and saw the sheath to Crocea Mors on my hip. As I went to draw it, however, I realized that the sword was missing._

 _A voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere, recognizable as neither man nor woman. "You shall be a candle in the Dark._ "

 _Hmm? A cryptic, disembodied voice, stained glass floor, empty space all around... where had I seen all of this before?_ _Maybe in a game?_

 _The voice didn't hear (or didn't care about) my thoughts and continued onward. "Be a shield for the innocent, for your allies."_

 _Oh, I'd seen this in Kingdom Hearts! The voice is getting the quotes all wrong, though; also, didn't Sora get the chance to choose between a shield, sword, and staff?_

 _I heard something_ _moving behind me and saw a black form coming out of the glass. After a moment, it took the definitive shape of a beowolf and roared at me. Feeling my adrenaline surge from the sudden threat, I brought the sheath/shield of Crocea Mors up to defend myself. Remembering my missing sword, I shouted at my unseen speaker, "The shield was auto-picked! This dream is a knock-off, gimme a refund!"_

 _The grimm charged at me, front claws swiping in an x-shape as it got into melee range. I raised the shield and took the brunt of the attack dead-on, claws grinding against steel. The beowolf was relentless, going for another strike as I recoiled from the force of the first attack._ _I kicked off of the ground to put as much distance between us as I could._

 _Yeah, Sora could swing the dream shield like a blunt weapon, but I still felt all the weight of mine. It was too large to do so to such a fast target; or rather, it's a trick that would only work once or twice._

 _The beowolf began stalking me in a circle, trying to find the best angle to strike at. I kept my front facing it, trying to figure out how to not die. I was aware that I was dreaming and thus wouldn't really die, but a part of me refused to just roll over and accept an easy loss._

 _Then, I had an idea. I turned the shield back into its sheath form and held it forward. The grimm, anxious to rip into my flesh, took that to be its chance and lunged at me. It jumped high, mouth open and ready to tear into me; so, I took my sheath and thrust it at its gaping maw. At the last possible moment I felt I could, I pressed the mechanism that changes the form of it._

 _The shield expanded inside of its throat, causing it to gag on the object that had become considerably larger than the opening; Ol' Grimmy still had momentum, however, so as its weight hit me I practically swung the whole monster over my head and slammed it onto the ground like a hammer. Sadly, the grimm was still breathing, and with my shield still stuck in its vocal cords I did the only thing I could._

Slam! _My right fist thrust into its face. It still struggled._ Slam! Slam! Slam!

 _Over and over I struck the beast, adrenaline coursing through my veins as my instincts demanded I survive. I lost count past ten, focused solely on dealing as much damage as I could. Its claws pulled at my armor, but I paid it no heed._

 _Finally, the monster ceased its flailing and I stood up. My shield was still stuck inside of it, so I could only recover it after it faded_ _. I was startled when a text box suddenly appeared in front of me._

 **You have overcome a trial and taken the first step on the path to being a true hero. You have been awarded** **5 stat points that you may assign at will.**

 **Welcome to the Game.**

"Huh?!" My eyes refocused and I discovered that I was back in JNPR's dorm room, the earliest rays of the sun peeking through the curtains. Fighting the feeling of grogginess, I reach over to my scroll and checked the time: 6:11 A.M. "Man, that dream was intense."

I let go of the scroll and rolled over to stare at the ceiling, only to find the the second text box, the one welcoming me to the game, was floating over my head. "A dream within a dream? Aw, man. Lucid dreaming is supposed to be fun, isn't it?"

The text box remained, so I stayed in my position, waiting for the next game-like event to happen. A minute passed... then another...

Sighing, I realized that I would have to keep the dream rolling. Clicking the little 'x' button in the corner got rid of thr notification, but still nothing occured. Maybe there was something else?

"Well, let's put my years of experience to work." What do games usually have? A main menu, for starters.

Responding to my thoughts, another text box appeared, this one reading off like a list.

 **Menu: 1) Inventory. 2) Status. 3)** **Skills. 4) Party Chat. 5) Friend List. 6) Options.**

Options seemed as good a place to start as any. The menu disappeared, revealing another list.

 **Party Options**

 **Language -Default-**

 **BGM -Off-**

 **Controls**

"A little slim on my options, isn't it? Must be an indie dev." I chuckled to myself and pressed the 'controls' button.

 **X-axis camera -Default-** Inverted

 **Y-axis camera -Default-** Inverted

 _"Oh, you cheeky bastard!"_ Dream or not, I didn't feel like waking up my new friends from yelling, so I kept the anger internal. I hit the back button and pressed the Party Options next.

 **Create new party [3 unused slots]**

 **Invite player**

 **Kick player**

 **Exp gain (?)**

The question mark was selectable, so I clicked it.

 **This option controls how earned experience is spread within a selected party.**

 **Even Spread- Splits the experience evenly among all members. *requires all members to be within ten levels of the party host (you).**

 **Merit Spread- Splits the experience according to individual contributions.**

 **No spread- All earned experience is sent to the party host (you) regardless of contributions.**

That was much more informative than I was expecting. I click the 'create new party' option.

 **What would you like to name Party (1)?**

"This is so awkward."

 **Would you like to name the party (This is so awkward)?**

I recoiled and furiously hit the 'no' button, and clicked another back button to return to the main menu. Status was my next choice, and my personal stats soon revealed themselves.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: -Please select one**

 **Level 8**

 **HP: 630/630**

 **AP: 840/840**

 **Str: 19**

 **Dex: 12**

 **Con: 21**

 **Int: 12**

 **Wis: 11**

 **Cha: 13**

 **Skill points: 5**

"That constitution, tho'." I did some mental math and determined that, assuming my base stats had been ten across the board at level one, I received four skill points per level. What perplexed me was the stat distribution itself. I thought back to what Pyrrha said to me just the day before.

 _"It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. You have a lot of it."_ So I'm built like a tank, then; but are the stats doled out automatically, or will I be able to specialize however I please?

 _"Well, it's all a dream, anyways."_ I refrain from assigning any of my free points and click the 'title' button.

 **Available titles: (Click on title to see its effects.)**

 **Newbie Hero**

 **Fake Hero**

I absentmindly clicked on Newbie Hero.

~ **Newbie Hero**

 **This title represents somebody who has just started their pursuit of being a Soldier or Huntsman. Keep your eyes forward!**

 **5% damage boost to creatures of Grimm, 5% bonus to charisma (decimals round up)**

So it's a little bonus damage to monsters and, effectively, one more charisma point. It wasn't much, but this is a "New Game". What about fake hero, though?

 **~Fake Her** **o**

 **This title represents somebody who has taken their heroic position through less than reputable means. The ends justify the means, right?**

 **5% bonus to charisma (decimals round up), minimal boost to success rate of actions that rely on deceit.**

How about... no. Understanding that the game was judging me for everything, I reselect Newbie Hero and equipped it. The last thing I wanted to look at was my skills, so I brought it up.

 **Skill list.**

 **Gamer's Mind**

 **Gamer's Body**

 **Shield Proficiency**

 **Sword Proficiency**

What the heck were those first two supposed to be?

 **~Gamer's Mind (Passive) LV: MAX**

 **The mindset you have when playing video games has developed into a real-world ability**.

 **Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows a peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effects.**

I couldn't restrain my snark. "But does that mean I can't get drunk? I really don't want to be like Captain Atlas."

Moving on.

 **~Gamer's Body** **(Passive) LV: MAX**

 **Video Game characters don't bleed... All that much.**

 **Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. (The user receives no physical damage from attacks.) Sleeping in a bed restores the user's HP and AP to full.**

I wasn't quite sure what to make of that one. Did it mean that I couldn't bleed anymore? _"Well, this is a combat school. Depending on how long this dream lasts, I'll find out what it means. On a different note, that description isn't very good."_

If the abilities were to be taken at face value, than they were actually pretty powerful. No broken bones, I'd always remain calm... It really was too bad that-

 _Beep! Beep! Beep!_

A scroll alarm sounded to my right, only to be shut off by Pyrrha's hand. She slowly rose from her bed, red night gown covering everything important. I checked the time on my scroll again (7:30 this time.) "Good morning, Pyrrha. How'd you sleep?"

"Good mor-" She was interrupted by a yawn that she did her best to stifle. Clearly, she wasn't a morning person. "...morning, Jaune. You seem chipper today."

"Nah, I've just been up for a while. Do you want the first shower?" Pyrrha gave a tired nod and mumbled her thanks, making her way to the restroom with her uniform in hand. As she walked away I got my first real look at her, and stopped breathing as I read the words above her head.

 **Pyrrha Nikos**

 **Title: She who controls Victory**

 **LV: 46**

 _"You're almost_ six times _my level."_

Pyrrha turned back to me and tilted her head quizzically. "I'm sorry, did you say something Jaune?"

I didn't realize until she asked me that question that I had spoken out loud as well as in my head. Flustered a bit, I coughed and said, "Sorry, I was talking to myself. Didn't mean to bother you."

She shrugged and walked into the bathroom, and within a minute I heard the water running. It struck me that this lucid dream was, despite the game parts of it, hands-down the most realistic dream I'd ever had. Time was flowing as it was supposed to, and her behavior had been quite human...

...I was dreaming, right?

To my left, Nora practically leapt off of her bed and landed with both feet together, posing with her hands up in the air. "And she sticks the landing! Nora Valkyrie has done it again, ladies and gentlemen!"

...Alright, Ren hadn't warned me that she was one of _those_ morning people. "Morning, Nora."

"Morning, Jaune-Jaune! Pyrrha in the shower?" I saw a set of words above her head, as well.

 **Nora Valkyrie**

 **Title: The Bubbly Thunder-God**

 **LV: 40**

"Yep." Wait, this was a good chance to test if I was awake or asleep. "Can I ask you a question, Nora?"

She began going through her dresser as she answered, "Sure thing. What is it?"

I needed to ask something I didn't know the answer to. "How long have you and Ren known each other?"

"Since we were kids! We sorta lived in the same village when some bad things happened. We stuck together- well, not together-together, and got stronger over all this time. Now we're all super-strong and ready to fight Grimm!"

It was a very 'Nora' answer, and while it wasn't exactly detailed it was proof enough: I was awake... This was freaky! Why was this happening?!

Suddenly, a wave of calm overtook me, and I felt my nerves return to normal at almost record speed. _"I see, so this is Gamer's Mind."_

While I was busy going from angst to no angst, Nora woke up Ren with an extremely cheerful "Good Morning!" I subtly understood that Ren probably hadn't needed an alarm clock set for any number of years. When Pyrrha came out of the shower Nora dove right in, so I decided to occupy my morning by going through my belongings; however, I couldn't help but sneak a peek at the space over Ren's head.

 **Lie Ren**

 **Title: Ninja of the Lotus**

 **LV:** **39**

 **By continuously observing those around you, you have developed the skill "Observe"!**

Oh?

 **~Observe (active) LV: 1 EXP: 0.0%**

 **This skill allows the user to see information on any observable person or object.**

 **This skill costs no AP. Leveling up this skill causes more information to become viewable.**

Person or object? Is that any object, or just particular 'Items?' I dug into my small stack of boxes and found my guitar case. I slipped the guitar out of its case and examined it.

...Nothing happened. _"Do I need to specify 'Observe?'"_ As soon as I thought that, a text box appeared over it.

 **~Jaune's guitar.**

 **An old acoustic guitar that Nicholas Arc found at a decent price and purchased for you. The strings need to be replaced soon, but it is otherwise in good condition.**

"Oh, you play the guitar, Jaune?" Pyrrha spoke to me, now dressed in her school uniform and brushing her hair.

"I used to play a good bit, but fell out of practice. I brought it here hoping I could relearn it in my free time." I spent a few moments tuning it the key of C, gently plucking the strings as I held it up to my ear. Satisfied with my work, even if it wasn't pitch perfect, I gave the guitar a few lazy strums.

 **Performing a special action has earned you the skill "Guitar Playing"!**

 **You have learned a skill you previously excelled at prior to playing the Game. The skill level has been adjusted appropriately.**

I look at the skill details out of the corner of my eye. _"Passive, Level twenty-two, huh? Depending on the level cap, that might not be that bad."_ This would be good to keep in mind as I progressed through the game- I meant, my life. I heard my name being called and looked up from the text box. "I'm sorry, I zoned out there for a minute. What's up?"

Ren was the one speaking to me now. "Nora came out of the shower. If you'd like, you can go ahead and take yours."

I nod and say thanks, grab my clothes, and disappear into the restroom. As I turn on the now lukewarm water, I let my thoughts branch out. " _For whatever reason, I am now living the life of a video game character. The important question is: what do I plan on doing about it?"_

I couldn't tell anybody about this since nobody would believe me, and I didn't want to try "quitting" the Game since it might turn out to be a literal suicide. It looked like I was stuck in my situation, whatever the hell it was.

Making the shower a quick one, I dried off and got dressed before stepping out. I had a tendency to let my shower hair go uncombed, and that day was no exception. Ren slipped in after I left, leaving me with both of our female companions.

Oh, that reminded me. I mentally said 'Friend List' and watched what looked like folder tabs appear. One said 'Family', another 'Ansel', one more said 'Beacon- students', and the last said 'Beacon- teachers.' I clicked the tab for students and saw a short list appear.

 **Arranged by closeness**

 **Pyrrha Nikos -25- New Partner**

 **Ruby Rose -25- New friend.**

 **Nora Valkyrie -20- Fearless Leader**

 **Lie Ren -20- Teammate and Leader**

 **Yang Xiao Long -15- Ruby's Friend**

 **Blake Belladonna -5- Acquaintance**

 **Weiss Schnee -(-5)- Fool**

Woah, woah, where did the negative come from?! Did I make her angry at some point? I thought back to every interaction I had with Weiss up to that point. _"She addressed me as scraggly in the assembly, then she hated me calling her 'Snow Angel' (according to Yang), and finally I caught her- correction, she landed on me when she fell from the sky. That... was not a series of good impressions. Still, at least Blake's is in the positive. Barely."_

I pondered what type of actions would lead to more positive relationships. Deciding to experiment, I asked, "Hey, Pyrrha, I was wondering if there were any songs you want me to learn on the guitar."

She raised her eyebrows in surprise before hurriedly waving her hands in front of her. "There's no need for that, Jaune. I was just curious, that's all."

"Nah, it's okay. Like I said, I want to pick it up again, and what better way than to learn songs that people want to hear? That offer extends to you, too, Nora."

 **Your closeness with Pyrrha increased by 1!**

 **Your closeness with Nora increased by 1!**

Nora took the bait first. "Ooh, ooh! Do you know how to play 'Through the fire and the flames?'"

Success! I laughed and answered, "That's kinda above my pay grade right now, but I'll try to learn it once I get better. Promise."

For her part, Pyrrha gave a soft smile and said, "I don't have any requests right now, so I suppose I'll have to get back to you on that."

"No problem, just let me know." Ren appeared looking rather refreshed and joined us in our conversation.

Suddenly, a voice was heard from outside our room. "It's 8:55, you **dunce**!"

 **New Quest!**

 **You're gonna be tardy to Professor Port's class! Book it before it's too late!**

 **Success: 500 EXP**

 **Failure: 5 EXP, decreased closeness with your teammates, decreased closeness with Peter Port, possible detention.**

 **~This quest is mandatory.**

The game didn't have to tell me twice! "Let's go, double time!" We all bust out of our dorm room, not even bothering to see if the door closed behind us. We were hot the heels of our sister team, RWBY, who couldn't spare the time to acknowledge us. Thankfully for us all, Weiss had memorized the location of the classroom, helping us make it there just in the nick of time. The bell rang just as we plopped onto the only empty benches.

Professor Port, who had been standing by the door, nodded at us and closed the entrance. He announced the start of class with, "Welcome, students, to your first lesson in Grimm Studies! I am Professor Port."

 **Quest Success!**

 **You earned: 500 EXP.**

It wasn't a great reward by any means, but it was waaaay better than failure would've been. I glanced around the room, taking in the classroom's atmosphere and students. As my gaze drifted downwards, I met the eyes of one Ruby Rose, who was also looking around. I gave her a thumbs up and mouthed _'We made it_ ,' and she returned the gesture with a smile. When she turned to face forward, I decided to use 'Observe' on the back of her head.

 **Ruby Rose**

 **Title:** **Little Red Fighting Hood**

 **LV: 42**

 **HP:** **750/750**

 **AP:** **1000/1000**

 **STR:** **31**

 **DEX:** **62**

 **CON:** **25**

 **INT:** **28**

 **WIS:** **33**

 **CHA:** **45**

I wrote a note to myself to figure out which stat gave AP and by how much per point. Port had resumed talking, so I opted to give him my full attention. "-emons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!"

The portly man promptly lost that attention as he launched into a tale about capturing a beowolf as a child. I tried to gleam what useful information I could from the story, but thirty minutes in I gave up and decided to observe him instead of listening to him.

 **Peter Port**

 **LV: ?**

 _"He's un-observable?"_ That was new. I spent several minutes using 'Observe' again and again, but the results remained the same. With no better alternative to listening to him drone on, I turned my attention inwards and looked at the Sword and Shield Proficiency skills.

 **~Sword Proficiency (Passive) LV: 1 EXP: 0.0%**

 **This skill belongs to anyone who has picked up an edged weapon with the intent to swing. This skill does not measure your mastery of swordsmanship, but rather your dedication to learning it.**

 **1% damage bonus to sword-based attacks.**

 **~Shield Proficiency (Passive) LV: 1 EXP: 34.7%**

 **This skill belongs to anyone who has equipped a shield in order to defend themselves or others.**

 **1% bonus to Constitution while a shield is equipped (decimals round down)**

 _"Huh. I wonder why there's such a difference in bonuses?_ _Maybe defensive bonuses require different calculations?"_ I also wondered why I had experience points in 'Shield', untiI remembered my unique dream... experience... thing.

Below me, Weiss suddenly stood up and proclaimed "I do!" to some unheard question. I was going to have to learn to multitask when dealing with my game menus, because I seemed to miss a lot whenever I got into my own head. The Schnee heiress left the room to retrieve something while Professor Port began moving a large, growling box to the empty space where he had been "lecturing."

Pyrrha, seeing my confusion, leaned over and whispered, "The professor asked if anyone believed themselves to be Huntsman or Huntress material, and she volunteered."

Nodding to show I understood, I joined the class in waiting for the departed to come back. Weiss returned after several minutes, armed with her rapier and dressed in her battle outfit from initiation. Her attire was pressed and imaculate, but I couldn't help but notice that her face was distorted with a scowl that she aimed at Ruby. As she set herself into a fighting position, I observed her stats.

 **Weiss Schnee**

 **Title: The Frozen Princess**

 **LV: 43**

 **HP: 1020/1020**

 **AP: 1360/1360**

 **STR: 30**

 **DEX: 46**

 **CON: 34**

 **INT: 65**

 **WIS: 27**

 **CHA:** **26**

With that much focus in Intelligence she would most assuredly qualify for a mage of some description, but why was her Wisdom so low comparatively? I was interrupted from that train of thought by the professor whipping out an ax and slamming it down on the lock that had been on his mystery box. A grimm rushed out of it immediately, taking only a moment to examine its surroundings and mark Weiss as its target.

 **Boarbatusk**

 **LV: 25**

 **HP: 1500/1500**

 **STR: 50**

 **DEX: 27**

 **CON: 30**

 **INT: 12**

 **WIS: 10**

 **CHA: 10**

 _"The Grimm's stats don't match the four points per level pattern, and its HP is way higher than Weiss's, even though the CON is lower. It looks like Grimm follow different standards."_ I couldn't take my eyes from the scene, even while I analyzed their stats. I was about to witness what a true Huntress-in-Training could do when solo fighting a monster.

X

 **Woo! Sorry to cliffhanger you, but I have to keep the chapters to a manageable size.**

 **Let me know how I'm doing! As I said before, I'll be responding to reviews each chapter. For now, GG.**


	2. Chapter 2- You have obtained

**The reception to this story has been wonderful.** **.. so wonderful, it was actually pretty shocking. I didn't realize at first that I'd been added to three communities instead of one, so I was staring at my phone going, "Okay, my writing is *not* that good. It shouldn't be getting this kind of attention in one chapter." But thank you all for being so invested, I pray we have a good time on this journey.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **TotesReal:** I'm glad you're excited. And we'll see which ship sails out of the harbor later :p

 **Gruffard:** A solid yes to that. Observe will examine more and more as it grows.

 **cr00cy:** I talked about yours over PM, so here I'll just repeat my thanks for your advice.

 **Sir lagsalot:** No worries there. The Gamer Semblance is powerful and allows team bonuses (which will be revealed later), but it *is* still a Semblance. For my fic, only Jaune will be able to use the system to its fullest.

 **Batpool:** Awesome to hear, thank you! Also, I'm sorry, but I have to do this once: Na-na na-na na-na na-na Batpool!

 **Zaine:** Yeah, having MCs always be _just_ as powerful as they need to be since they could grind at will bothers me. Your assessment means I'm starting off on the page I meant to, so I'm happy about that.

 **Sundrawn:** Thank you for following, here's that more you wanted :)

 **Knight of elves:** the games we play holds a special place in my heart, too, but that isn't the kind of story I would enjoy writing. I'd probably wind up complaining about how Ryuugi did it better; not fun for anyone.

 **Enddragon:** Depends on what you mean by elements. If you mean "Jaune is gonna summon a servant" or that there will be a holy grail to fight over, no. If you mean borrowing an appropriate move for his repertoire, then we can talk shop.

 **austyng123:** Yay, my grammar is the most bestest evar- *Shot* To the Aura question: yes, that'll show up as we go. No set update schedule because I juggle a family and job (but I'll do my best to keep it semi-regular,) and I have no idea how many chapters this will be. Not a clue.

 **Sword kid** : Thank you for believing in me, and... that's a really cool idea. As a bit of a spoiler, the point of the camera controls was to give a clue that Jaune's Gamer Semblance is inherently flawed; your suggestion could be a way that he gets around the crappy programming. Kudos to you.

 **Xemness The Scholar:** That's two people for Fate/Stay references haha. Yeah, in his mind it would absolutely not be worth his conscience to use that title. You're actually the first person (that left a review) to catch the title importance. For the loot: I'm definitely not doing amazing weapon drops, although I am entertaining the idea of cursed Grimm masks. Barring that, maybe beowolf teeth (make some necklaces) or Ursa skin rugs (finally fulfill Nora's dream lol.)

 **Kejmur:** I hope I can bring a proper talk-no-jutsu to life (It starts this chapter, so let me know how I did!) Speed based... not this Jaune, at least.

 **DDragon:** I'm actually changing the levels that certain skills max at, because there's no point in a skill like dishwashing levelling up to 99. In regards to the others improving, they will but... well, you'll see. The point of this story is to keep everyone non-OP.

 **Additional story info: for the sake of this story, ten lien is comparable to one american dollar. RWBY canon has given us no clue how much things actually cost, so I've got to work** **in some kind of standard.** **I also made an adjustment to the time frame of the first day, since RWBY seemed to make Port's class take them 9 A.M. to the evening, which is just... how?**

 **I am currently looking to make a cover art commission, so I would appreciate any artist recommendations you have. I'm not really plugged into that scene, sadly.**

 **The boarbatusk fight goes exactly how it does in the show, but that's mainly because I couldn't justify changing it or leaving it out.** **Jaune provides some color commentary, at least.**

 **GL; HF!**

 **X**

The boarbatusk wasted no time and launched itself straight at Weiss. It was no small creature, and as the white-haired girl deflected the beast to the side it became apparent that the tiny combat arena gave the advantage squarely to the monster. The Grimm stood a distance away, studying her and deciding its next move.

Ruby cheered her on with, "Hang in there, Weiss!"

Weiss sped at her opponent blade first, and when she collided with the boarbatusk her rapier dug into its face mask; unfortunately, the weapon was now properly _stuck_ there, and the grimm took advantage by flailing its head back and forth. For her part, Weiss refused to let go of the hilt as she tried to yank it out. Port had a rather jovial tone as he commented with, "Bold, new approach. I like it!"

Ruby, not to be outdone by her professor, continued with her rousing cheers. "Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!"

Weiss turned to glare at Ruby, but that lapse of attention quickly turned out to be a mistake; the boarbatusk promptly yanked to the left, sending the blade sliding onto the floor, and slammed its tusks into the poor girls body. Peter Port made another loud comment, but I was too busy "observing" Weiss to notice.

 **HP:** **917/1020**

 **AP:** **1098/1360**

 _"She hasn't used any glyphs, so that attack damaged both her HP and her AP... No, that isnt quite right. Pyrrha said that Aura acts like a force field, so its more appropriate to say that some of the HP damage was substituted by her AP bar."_ Weiss rose to her knees and looked up just in time to see the Boarbatusk charging again; wisely, she rolled out of the way and the grimm's momentum kept it going until it slammed into one of the desks. Weiss took that opportunity to retrieve her blade and reset her position.

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" The silver-eyed leader was interrupted by Weiss angrily shouting.

"Stop telling me what to do!" From my position above and behind her, Ruby seemed shocked by her partner and slid back into her seat. Meanwhile, the boarbatusk leapt into the air before slamming down, tucked into itself so it looked like a ball. It began spinning faster and faster, until-

 _"What, is this thing a hedgehog now!? I have a BGM option, maybe I should add Sonic music to the scene."_

The grimm launched itself at a ludicrous speed, but Weiss activated one of her glyphs to block the roll; Black Sonic - _"Would that make it Shadow?"-_ ricocheted off of it and seemed to hang in the air. Weiss then flipped into the air where another glyph was waiting and turned herself into an airborne bullet. Myrtenaster pierced the monster's stomach and both combatants crashed into the floor. The only Li'l piggy quickly stopped breathing and started to fade from existence.

Weiss steadied her breath and stood up as Port's voice boomed, "Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Weiss glared at Ruby and walked past her teammates to the door, not saying a word as the rest of RWBY shared looks of utter confusion. After a moment Ruby took off behind her, and I found my feet following soon after. _"What am I doing? Part of me is saying that I shouldn't interfere with this, but..."_

I caught up to them after a minute, but they were already in the middle of arguing. Weiss was pointing a finger almost accusingly at Ruby and saying, "-in the forest, you acted like a child, and you've only continued to do so!"

"Weiss, where is this coming from? What happened to all the talk about 'working together'? I thought you believed in acting as a team." The desperation in her voice was clear, and I found myself torn between making my presence known in Ruby's defence and remaining just out of sight to hear more before reaching a conclusion. My stalling led me to hear this gem from the heiress's mouth.

"Not a team led by you. I've studied and trained; and quite frankly, I deserve better." Weiss turned her back to Ruby in order to end the discussion, but she fired one more shot as she walked away. "Ozpin made a mistake."

I took a step forward to intercede, but stopped when I heard footsteps right behind me. Pyrrha got close to me and asked, "Jaune, what is going on out here? What happened?"

I had a decision to make: stay and cheer up Ruby, or catch up to Weiss and defend my first Beacon friend. The choice was obvious, in hindsight. "Pyrrha, please do me a favor and try to cheer Ruby up. I've got to talk to Weiss about something."

"O...kay, I will; but what are you going to say to her?" Pyrrha's confusion was almost palpable, which I understood perfectly well.

"I have it on good faith that Weiss doesn't exactly have a good opinion of me. I figure I should double down on it if it means sticking up for a friend. See you later." Without waiting for a response, I jogged to meet up with the girl who was soon going to hate me.

 _"Alright Jaune, think: you're defending Ruby, but you aren't exactly the best guy with words. What can you do to give your argument an edge?_ My brain struggled to find a good answer even as I approached Weiss's back; then it hit me like lightning. _"Charisma. I need more charisma."_

I wasted no time in bringing up my status screen and dumping all five points into it.

 **CHA: 18 (+1)= 19**

Nodding to myself, I decreased the gap between us as fast as I could. Weiss was approaching Professor Port, so I called her name out loud to interrupt her; and, no, I couldn't quite keep my anger out of it. "Weiss!"

She glanced at me, clearly struggling to decide if she should even entertain talking to the 'fool.' Realizing I was not about to be ignored, she sighed and turned to face me. "Have something you'd like to say, Arc?"

"Lots, but I'll start simple: where do you get off, telling Ruby she shouldn't be a leader?" It was a bizarre feeling; I could feel Gamer's Mind helping me find the right words, but those "right words" were clearly fueled by anger as opposed to logic. The skill, clearly, was not flawless.

"You make it sound like I enjoyed doing that, but I'm only speaking the truth; Ozpin should not have made her the leader of the team, plain and simple."

"Oh, and you would've been so much better? From where I was sitting, it looked like you were just snapping at Ruby for no reason while she cheered you on in there. What was it? 'Stop telling me what to do?'"

 **Your closeness with Weiss** **decreased by 1!**

Weiss's hands clamped into fists as she visibly bristled. "That girl has been nothing but impulsive and sloppy in everything she does. Even if I wasn't made team leader, it should _not_ have been a fifteen-year-old child... or _you._ "

 _"Ah, there it is."_ The hard part of any argument is when you find yourself agreeing with a point but still need to establish your own. "I'm not going to pretend to understand what Ozpin was thinking, making me a leader; but we've been a part of our teams for one day. _One day._ Shouldn't you at least give Ruby the chance to prove herself as a good leader? Or were you really planning on going up to Ozpin and saying to him 'you messed up?'"

She flinched, but refused to back down to me. "Two fools for leaders? Yes, one can easily see that he's out of his mind; but go ahead, convince me: what makes you a better leader than, say, Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Not a single thing." The admission seemed to catch Weiss off-guard, clearly expecting something, anything, else. "I, Jaune Arc, am pretty useless when compared to any of my teammates; but one man believes I can do something for them as their leader, so by Oum am I going to fight tooth and nail to be the best leader I can be. And I know for a fact that Ruby will, too."

 **Your closeness to Peter Port has increased by 5!**

" _Hmm?"_ I looked beyond Weiss and saw the portly man looking at me with a smile. Weiss, following my line of sight, saw the Professor and realized (just as I did) that he had likely heard everything. Port opened his mouth and said, "Miss Schnee, Mister Arc has a valid point. Acting in such a way will not alter anybody's circumstances. Allow me a question: are you not the type of person who will do her best at improving every part of her that she can?"

"Of course I am. I would never fail to work at a flaw I knew was there." Weiss had dropped her anger in exchange for an air of pride.

"Then," continued Port, "why not strive to be the best the teammate you can be? We all have times when the outcome doesn't fall in our favor; what matters is what we do from there. Hone your skills, both of you, and work to do everything that you can for your teams. Farewell, you two." Port walked around the corner, leaving both of us alone and slightly calmer than before.

It was an awkward silence, and it extended into a minute... then two... and almost three before Weiss began mumbling to herself. After a moment of that she turned back to me. "Ar- Jaune, a question."

I caught the change, but didn't comment on it. "What is it?"

"Would you like to make a deal? Or a bet, if you prefer." I motioned for her to continue. "I will do my best to... accept the things I can't change. To work on being a better partner. In exchange, you work on being a better fighter and a good leader. At the end of the semester, we'll compare our progress. Agreed?"

 _"Is this just how Weiss does things?"_ I couldn't complain; it went along with everything I was already planning on doing. "No problem, but how are you thinking we could compare that kind of thing?"

She rolled her eyes. "We'll hold a duel or something, I don't know. The point is, are you willing to prove me wrong about you?"

I looked her straight in the eyes. "Yes."

 **Your closeness with Weiss increased by 6!**

I almost laughed out loud. _"Yay, I'm back to zero. Progress made by arguing with each other."_

Weiss ignored my mental monologue and crossed her arms together with a nod. "Good, I shall look forward to it. In the meantime, I believe it is time for lunch. Our teams have likely already made it to the cafeteria."

I pulled out my scroll to check the time: 12:26 P.M. "We spent three hours in his class? My goodness. Let's go." Together, we made our way to the cafeteria and found it bustling with activity. The lunch line was practically empty, and after grabbing our food we discovered that our teams had decided to sit separately. Weiss and I bid each other silent farewells and went to our teams.

Pyrrha addressed me as soon as I sat down, voice laden with concern. "How did things go with Weiss?"

"Better than I expected," I answered honestly. "I think Professor Port and I managed to make some progress in that brain of hers."

My mouth stopped moving as I remembered something: I had completely neglected to see how much damage Weiss's attacks did per hit, as well as failed to see how much Aura her glyphs used. _"Amateur mistake, Gamer me should know better."_

Then again, it wasn't as if my intelligence was that high. Shaking off the now irrelevant thoughts, I asked in return, "How did the talk with Ruby go?"

"Very well, actually." Pyrrha finally smiled as she relaxed from hearing my answer. "Professor Ozpin showed up, and together we convinced her to work on growing as a leader. It was an informative talk for her as well as myself."

"Ah, that's good." She resumed eating after I responded, and I decided to "Observe" her stats.

 **Pyrrha Nikos**

 **Title: She who controls Victory**

 **LV: 46**

 **HP:** **1170/1170**

 **AP:** **1560/1560**

 **STR:** **53**

 **DEX:** **53**

 **CON:** **39**

 **INT:** **37**

 **WIS:** **30**

 **CHA:** **28**

Nora spoke up, and for once I paid attention while I was focused on my gamer antics. "Jaune, aren't you gonna eat? Our next class is coming up in ten minutes, and you haven't taken a bite."

I looked down at my tray. It held a ham sandwich, a banana, and a chocolate milk carton. As I reached for the sandwich, I realized that while it looked perfectly fine, I didn't feel any urge to eat; that'd be kinda normal, if it wasn't for the fact that we had all effectively skipped breakfast that morning.

"I guess I'm just not hungry," I answered lamely. "Maybe arguing with Weiss killed my appetite?"

Ren gave a thoughtful 'hmm' and slid a small thermos over to me. "You still need to put something in your stomach. Here, this is an herbal health supplement I've created. It should provide you all the nutrition you need."

When I opened the container, I saw that the drink that he handed me was... different. It was a pale lime-green, with a few floating chunks of something I couldn't identify. In an attempt to stall drinking the rather sickly looking substance, I "observed" it and prayed the ingredients weren't too bizarre.

 **~Ren's Health Drink**

 **It may taste disgusting, but it is jam-packed with 'healthy' ingredients.**

 **Upon consumption: heals 300 HP**.

 _"The Game is **telling me** that it's gonna taste bad. At least it'll heal me if I ever need that." _ Right at that moment I remembered my skill "Gamer's Body" and how it allows me to live life as if it were a game. _"Many game characters never 'have' to eat; eating only serves to heal them. I could go the rest of my life without ever eating."_

The implications were unsettling. I would know that I'd be fine without food, but my friends and family would see me go days on end without eating and assume I was sick or depressed; to keep the peace, I was going to have to keep up appearances. Closing my eyes from the unsettling smell, I tipped the thermos into my open mouth.

I could never be sure, but I swear I saw Monty as I downed a third of that twenty ounce concoction, the conflicting tastes and textures overwhelming my brain almost immediately. When my self-inflicted torture ended, I slammed the drink onto the table and clenched my teeth to stop the almost inevitable 'return trip' from happening. With watery eyes I said, "Ren, I appreciate you looking after my health; but please, don't ever make this again. Stick to strawberry-banana smoothies or something."

Pyrrha rubbed my back in an attempt to ease my discomfort, and Nora grabbed the drink from my hands and gave it a hearty whiff. Her hand quickly covered her mouth as she proclaimed, "Ren! My goodness, he's right about this abomination. Throw it away, container and all!"

He didn't look offended from our judgement as he slipped the thermos back into his jacket pocket. "Very well, I shall simply find a new combination. In the meantime, why don't we make our way to Professor Oobleck's class?"

Heeding his suggestion, we took care of our trays and made our way to history class. Along the way I made it a point to "observe" as many students as I could, and came to a slightly depressing realisation: the lowest level person I saw (outside of myself) was some guy named Sky at level 31, so there was at least a 23 level gap I needed to close to be a passable student, and _that_ didn't even count for the fact that my fellow students would be growing as I did. The difficulty in this Game of Huntsmen was ridiculous.

Professor, or, as he asserted _most_ firmly, Doctor Oobleck turned out to be a skinny middle-aged man with green hair and energy levels _through the roof_. I spent the next three hours cracking my neck back and forth in an attempt to follow the man as his lecture seemed to go on and on. The good news was that it wasn't nearly as boring as Port's class, the bad news was that I still didn't feel like I learned anything. By the end of the lesson I only managed to get a small page of notes, and all of that consisted of various key words I managed to hear amidst the chaos.

Oh, and as an added touch, I only managed to get his name and "?" from him when I "observed" him.

 _"I'm gonna have to do a lot of reading to keep up in this class."_ Slipping my notebook into my bag, I got up with the rest of my class and trudged out when the bell rang. Just as I was approaching the door way, I saw this.

 **By being the subject of malicious intent for a lengthy period of time, you have developed the skill "Sense Danger!"**

I barely had time to read it before feeling somebody slam _hard_ into my shoulder, almost knocking me straight onto my face as I fought to keep my balance. Looking up, I saw Cardin Winchester smirking down at me. "Whoops, sorry about that."

I didn't care to respond as he walked away, choosing instead to examine my newly acquired skill.

 **~Sense Danger LV: 1 (Passive) EXP: 0.0%**

 **This skill grants you the ability to know when any person or creature nearby is focusing on you with intent to harm in any form. Leveling up this skill increases the range of your perception.**

 **Current max range: 15 feet.**

It's a tiny range at the moment, but it would be invaluable for missions that took me out amongst the Grimm. I gave a word of thanks to Cardin for being a prick, since he basically gave me this skill.

Dinner was a more lively affair than lunch was since JNPR and RWBY decided to sit together to eat. Yang made constant jokes about anything and everything, Blake was absorbed in her book and only spoke when spoken to, and Ruby chatted energetically about whatever topic came up (and made sure to chide Yang for her occasional bad pun.) Weiss wasn't the most amicable person at the table, but I could see that she was making an effort at intergrating herself into the team.

Having already scanned all of my companions with "observe," I decided to use it on all of our food. _"Muffins give me 50 HP, milk 100 HP, and most of the fruits between 75-100. Knowing all of this is pretty neat, actually."_

 **The level of the skill "Observe" has increased by 1!**

 _"Aha! I got it within a day, not bad. It'll probably take longer to level the higher it goes, but I wonder how high it can get? Oh well, let's re-observe somebody and see what's new. How about... Blake?"_

 **Blake Belladonna**

 **Title:** **She who stalks the night**

 **LV:** **45 EXP: ErMac**

 **HP: 1050/** **1050**

 **AP:** **1400** / **1400**

 **STR:** **43**

 **DEX:** **55**

 **CON:** **35**

 **INT:** **48**

 **WIS:** **28**

 **CHA:** **27**

 **Race: Faunus**

I made sure to go back to eating so I didn't look like I was staring at her. A part of me was surprised to learn that she was a faunus, since I couldn't see anything animal related on her; but far more curious was the EXP part. _"ErMac? The Mortal Kombat character? That doesn't seem right. I'll have to do some research on that later."_

After we finished eating, everyone made their way to the dorms (minus Blake, who disappeared to the library.) When we of JNPR walked into our room I said, "Alright, let's get these boxes knocked out. I'm sure this room will feel bigger once we can get rid of the cardboard everywhere."

The next hour was fun, at least as much as unpacking can be. Ren and Nora spent a few moments arguing about the best spot for his wallpaper to go up while Pyrrha managed to put up a better set of curtains, replacing the schools dingy brown with an almost alluring dark red.

Eventually, my hands came upon one of my boxes of game consoles and discs, and I felt myself nostalgia a bit as I held the case for Street Fighter 4. Yeah, I loved playing these games all the time before, but now my life _was_ a game. It was a peculiar feeling, since I had both grown up from my games and yet, somehow, made them into a core aspect of my life.

Nora caught me in my reminiscence and said, "Hey, Ren is great at fighting games! After we get done here, how about you set up that system and we all play a few rounds?"

I chuckled and said, "Sounds good to me. Pyrrha, you joining in on this?"

"I suppose so," she answered with a smile and a shrug. "I never had much of a chance to play these types of games growing up, so it'll be an experience for me. Just remember, we have to do our readings for class."

I gave a whoop and quickly finished with all of my boxes, which were, ironically, mostly games and consoles. I put them all in a wide, flat container that I slid under my bed, making sure to leave out my Playstation 3 and the SF 4. I'd guessed (correctly) that our dorm rooms wouldn't have any kind of monitor or screen that my systems could connect to, so I'd packed my 32' TV into its box and had it shipped as well.

Making sure I had all the cables hooked up properly, I booted up the system and popped open the game case. As I put my hand on the disc, however...

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Hadouken"?**

 _"...What...how...huh?!"_ My brain was completely fried, save for the feeling of them gazing at the back of my head, ready to start our gaming session. _"I'll just... worry about it later."_

I silently put the disc into the console and got it loading. Giving one controller to Nora and one to Pyrrha, I gave them both a general rundown of the controls. Nora was familiar enough with them and played as Zangief, while Pyrrha was eager to learn and alternated between Ken and Sakura.

It was the matches between Ren and myself that got intense, though. He was an Akuma main, while I played both Guile and Ryu. Four wins to him, three to me, and we somehow managed a double K.O. on the final match. Nora theorized we were both in the zone, but that didn't make me feel better since I was still down a match by the time we put up the controllers.

We all got ready for bed and set our alarms to get us up earlier than today since we weren't keen on skipping breakfast again. Goodnights were shared, a Ren got bearhugged, and we were all swept off to dreamland.

Well... except for me. I tossed and turned, but there were two things bothering me: the notification from earlier, and the fact that I didn't actually feel sleepy. Of course, by that point I already figured out the source the second problem. _"Gamer's Body... I don't know if I like this thin. Oh well; since I apparently don't need to sleep anymore, why not make this night productive?"_

Moving as quietly as I could, I grabbed the SF 4 case and slipped out of the room. I made my way through Beacon's halls at a run, trying to find my way to the courtyard in the dark. Ten minutes of exploration later, I stood on the grass in front of the dorms. With trembling hands, I cracked open the case and removed the disc.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Hadouken"?**

"Yes!" I almost screamed my answer. The disc began to shine, and after a moment it shattered into light. The light found its way to my chest, and as it sank into me my heart grew warm.

Every nerd in every city has dreamed of throwing fireballs out of their hands. We've all pretended to be our favorite character, yelling out the flashy names of various attacks. I, personally, liked to pretend I felt the flow of power as I used the imaginary powers; but now...

Now, I knew I truly could. I felt my Aura adjusting to my will as my mind suddenly just _knew_ how to use one of the most iconic attacks ever to exist in fiction, as if I'd always known how to use it and simply needed to hop back on the bike to remember how to ride.

 **~Hadouken LV: 1 (Active) EXP: 0.0% AP Cost: 50**

 **The famous technique taught to several martial artists in the Street Fighter universe, the user 'throws' a fireball of Aura at their opponent.** **This skill may be used on the ground and in the air. This skill may be charged, but only if the user is on the ground and uses both hands to do so. Damage is determined by STR and level.**

 **Max charge time: 4 seconds. AP cost at max charge: 250 AP.**

I began gathering my Aura in both of my palms. _-1 sec._ \- My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it with my ear drums. _-2 sec.-_ My hands are on fire, but I don't feel any pain. _-3 sec.-_

I instinctively knew that I only needed to 'think' the words, but I just couldn't help myself. "Shinku-" _-4 sec.-_ " **-Hadouken!** "

The fire became visible as I launched it from my hands. Roughly the size of my torso, it traveled a good twenty yards before it faded to nothing. I heard a stream of laughter, and it was after a moment that I realized it was coming from my lips. I charged and fired another full blast, followed by doing a small jump in the air and launching a small one at the ground. The space where it connected became scorched, though it didn't actually catch fire.

I collapsed onto the ground as my laughter faded into quiet giggles. " _No matter what happens from now on... my life is officially amazing."_

X

 **I was inspired to include TMs by Pokemon, since the TMs are disc shaped items that teach moves. Gamer canon skillbooks will also appear, but I wanted to being some flavor to my Jaune even if I'm not making him OP.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I appreciate all constructive criticism. For now, GG.**


	3. Chapter 3- Jaune Vs

**A/N:** **150 Favs and 270 followers already, _wow_. This got very intense, very quickly. No pressure to perform well, right?** **Lots of reviews, too; thank you, all of you. It means a lot to me.**

 **Review responses:**

 **Remzal:** Yep, in his skill list!

 **Dark Durian:** In order: Yes, he'll have to replace it; No, he will not get the shoryuken; and no spoilers on the fights.

 **Guest (That guy):** He _could_ send his team EXP farming while he chills in the dorm, but do you honestly think he _would?_ That's the difference. I've got some ways to keep his power in check, trust me.

 **Darth Cruel:** Thank you, my liege, and may I say this is a great day to *not* be force choked?

 **Cole:** Umm... I'm sorry?

 **Cr00cy:** It's a number of factors, not the least of which is avoiding skills that would let him handle every situation without error.

 **Muffintops:** Thanks, I tried to make it fresh. Hope you keep enjoying this as we go along!

 **Commandosquirrel:** First, love the name. The problem is if he learned the fighting styles, he'd go right to being broken. I'm avoiding that as much as possible given the setting.

 **shinosan:** Eh, 6 out of 10.

 **Mizore:** No worries, I'll be changing some things from canon. As to who lives/dies/turns into a rodeo clown, that's a secret.

 **Kejmur:** He's going to be Bard-ish.

 **Gruffard** : You get a point for good predictions. Have a cookie.

 **Zaine:** Yep, there are indeed cameras; but even if Jaune were an INT guy here, it'd be hard for him to predict all the places cameras might be

Plus, we (the viewers) know Ozpin has an eye within every wall, but most of the students don't know that.

 **Plasma Dragon:** The I.D. system has been removed completely for this. The grind potential is _way_ too high to keep it in.

 **NinjaFang:** Thank you (for both haha).

 **Shioshiro:** For the pairings (and my lack of divulging them), please see the A/N of chapter one. And even Han Jihan had to study his textbooks lol.

 **Darkmaelstrom:** I'm leaning away from the elemental affinities. Also, if you're wanting Jaune to be a solo player, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

 **Bluetempest:** He will achieve some level of parity, yes, though the specifics currently elude me.

 **Shadow of God:** You give good advice. The potential in Canon Jaune is great, as you said. My goal here is to have him Gamer-boosted to be even better without having him hit Han Jihan levels of ridiculousness. I'll be sure to avoid having him be weak for too long, I just have to ensure that we have clear view of his abilities at the start: unique powers, but no proper training yet. Speaking of which, this chap features Goodwitch's class.

 **Greenwatermonk:** I'll be careful with his moves, promise.

 **Rahad:** No OP Jaune is the plan.

 **GL; HF!**

X

I stayed on the ground for several minutes, basking in the glory of my new power. _"I am Jaune Arc, the guy who is going to master every technique known to fiction. Sword in one hand and Hadouken in the other, I'll..."_

My mind ground to a halt, and I sat up as I actually processed the skill I had just received. _"Wait, I use a sword/shield combo. I might be able to let the shield slide onto my arm to use a left-hand fireball, but unless I sheathed the sword I wouldn't be able to use both hands to charge it. Not only that, four seconds is a **long** time to charge mid-fight._ _This... is not a convenient move for me."_

Popped out of my happy bubble, I grabbed the empty game case and made my way back to the dorm room. _"The good news is that I have other games here I can... absorb, I guess. The digital download games are probably out, so what's the list of physical games I have?_ _Kingdom Hearts 2.5, Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, and Call of Duty for the PS3... Mario Party 6, LoZ: Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Sonic Adventure 2, and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness on the Gamecube... and that's it. Not a bad list, but I need to stock up."_

I unlocked the dorm room door with my scroll and slipped inside. The rest of the the team seemed to be dead asleep, so I quietly returned the case to its home and got into my sheets. Sleep hit me within the hour, and I'm happy to report that the dream I had featured no additional "trials" for me to overcome; however, I was not safe from visions of health drinks.

 _*Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!*_

My scroll alarm went off at 6:30, and I was more than happy to shut it off and rise from my bed.

 **You had a good night's sleep in a bed! HP and AP restored!**

Dismissing the notification, I hopped into the shower and started to focus on the last major component I saw in my Main Menu: the inventory screen. Opening it revealed a five-by-five grid of empty spaces, and a line at the bottom that said **"Current Lien: 675."** _"Alright, so I won't be buying new games anytime soon. How does this screen work? Should I try to put something in...?"_

I grabbed Ren's bottle of Samurai Shampoo and placed it over the upper-left corner spot. It disappeared with a small shimmer of light, and a moment later appeared in the same spot I selected. Holding my hand over it highlighted the box, and when I closed my hand over it and pulled back the bottle was reintroduced to reality.

 _"That'll_ definitely _come in handy. I'll have to test whether food spoils in my inventory or not."_ Satisfied with my experimentation, I let my thoughts wander and soon found myself recalling how the boarbatusk from the day before had gone full Sonic. I was overcome with the urge to do most manly of manly activities: singing in the shower.

"Rolling around at the speed of sound/ Got places to go, got to follow my rainbow!"

 **Performing a special action has earned you** **the skill "Singing"!**

I waited for the message that said I had 'relearned a skill I knew,' but it never appeared. Confused, I pulled up the skill's information.

 **~Singing LV:1 (Passive) EXP: 0.0%**

 **The talent that has entertained countless people since the dawn of man. This skill reflects your ability to hit those notes in just the right way.**

 **5% chance of causing the "charmed" status while using this skill.**

 _"Game, if you can hear my thoughts... are you trying to pick a fight?! I danced, played guitar, **and** sang, so what's the deal? Unless..." _While the game definitely wasn't optimized for ease-of-play, it hadn't lied about anything. That left one logical conclusion: my singing must've sucked. _"Great, so all those times my family said my performances were good was really them saying 'Your singing sucks, Jaune, but you play an awesome guitar.' How very inspiring."_

Stepping out of the bathroom revealed a drowsy Pyrrha standing outside the door. "Sorry, Pyrrha, didn't mean to keep you out." She gave a wordless nod and walked in; with any luck, she might not have heard my apparently crappy singing.

Nora and Ren were still down for the count, so I stealthily retrieved my game container and pulled out the first two games I could grab: Kingdom Hearts, and Tales of Symphonia. I popped open the former and extracted the disc.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Summon Keyblade"?**

 _"Yes, please!"_

 **Error! You are missing these prerequisites: Minimum CHA of 40.**

My eyes widened in surprise. Some skills requiring you to have certain traits or skills I understood completely, but... Charisma? Why that stat? Setting KH to the side, I opened up the other game.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Demon Fang"?**

Hitting the 'Yes' button yielded a better result this time, as the disc emitted a bright light and entered my being.

 **~Demon Fang LV: 1 (Active) EXP: 0.0% AP cost: 75**

 **The iconic technique of the Tales franchise. The user slides their weapon along the ground, sending a blast of Aura that will continue until it hits an enemy or firm surface. Damage is determined by STR and the level of the skill.**

 _"At least I can use this one while I'm armed, so that's good to have available. Still, I need to know why Charisma is so important for my precious keyblade."_ I ask that you ignore me saying precious like that.

7:15 rolled around, bringing Ren and Nora into the land of the living. All of JNPR got ready, and by 8:15 we were sitting in the cafeteria with our food (and team RWBY) in front of us. I took a moment to slip my bowl of oatmeal and an apple into my inventory; only time would tell if they survived whatever space my items were sent to.

Ruby raised a question between bites of her cereal. "So we have combat class-" _-munch-_ "-with Ms. Goodwitch today." _-munch-_ "What do you guys think that'll be like?"

"Eat or talk, Rubes; pick one." Yang chided her lightly. "For the class, I heard that the first few semesters focus on duels. Team tactics seem to start year two."

I inwardly cringed at the thought of fighting any of them; it was hard to deal with the fact that all of them were about five times my level. I chimed in with, "Any clue how the opponents are decided?"

Ren answered with, "It'll likely be determined by what people can learn from each other. I suspect we won't face the same person multiple times over the coming weeks."

"Don't worry about silly little things like classes, guys!" Nora almost flung the food on her spoon as she stood up. "You should talk about fun things instead, like the strange laughter rumor."

The rest of the table shared mutual looks of confusion. Pyrrha turned to her and asked, "Nora, what are you talking about?"

Nora's eyes took on a dangerous gleam. "I heard it while we were in the food line. Apparently, around midnight last night, a whole bunch of people heard some crazed laughing coming from outside the dorms. A second-year student checked it out and found a patch of grass that looked like it had been lit on fire."

 _"...Note to self: no matter how happy I feel, keep my gamer side quiet. I'm a noisy guy."_ I made sure not to betray my feelings of awkwardness as I said, "It just sounds like a silly joke. I doubt there's actually a 'Seven Mysteries of Beacon' kind of thing around here."

"There's a rumor like that here?! Ren, what kind of mysteries do you think Beacon has?" The conversation spiraled from there, going from discussing a haunted library to a Grimm-infested basement below the CCT. Weiss and Ren did their best to keep the topic sane, but everyone else was having too much fun figuring out how a goliath would fit in an elevator.

We eventually made our way to professor Peach's class, which was yet another experience to remember. The woman wasn't physically present, choosing instead to teach the class via Scroll call to the monitor in the classroom. Far more bizarre was the fact that she refused to even show her face; the end result was a disembodied voice teaching the class through a slideshow.

Mercifully, she taught at a pace that was easy to follow without being boring, and after three hours spent in her class learning about certain edible foods in the wild I felt like I had actually learned some things. Right before the bell for dismissal rang, the following message appeared.

 **Through diligent studying, your INT has increased by 1!**

 _"I can grind my stats? Awesome, looks like I'll be hitting the gym soon! Let's see: studying improves INT, STR is obvious, DEX... probably running? CON could be buffed while STR is, most likely, so that leaves WIS and CHA in the air. I'll figure them out soon."_ Grinning as the bell rang, I joined my team on their way out of the classroom. I'd been a little slow, so the door was crowded as everyone escaped.

 **You sense malicious intent!**

The game helpfully gave me the direction it was coming from, so I stepped to the right just as Cardin's shoulder went through the space where I'd just been standing. Unfortunately for him, he had been relying on my body to slow him down; when I wasn't there to take the hit, he wound up pushing right into Yang, who turned and gave him a questioning look and glare rolled into one. Intimidated, he mumbled, "Sorry, Xiao Long," and slipped past her as quietly as he could.

I felt a little proud of dodging the way I did, but I was also concerned about Cardin feeling such a powerful urge to target me. Nothing would be accomplished by brooding, though, so I put it out of my mind and went about my day.

Lunch was the same type of affair as breakfast, and not too long afterwards we were all in our battle outfits and sitting in Professor Goodwitch's class. The benches were cool as she pressed some buttons on her tablet, and it wasn't too long before she addressed us collectively. "Hello, class, and welcome to your combat course. Allow me to establish the rules: duels shall continue until one of the combatants is knocked out of bounds, forfeits, or has their Aura reduced to critical levels. For this class, 'critical' shall be seen as twenty-five percent or less of your total Aura gauge, as marked by your scrolls."

I took a moment to examine the room. There was a large arena in the center of the room, but careful examination revealed a visible lip where the in-bounds platform met with a darker brown floor. Above us and to my left was a large monitor, and I suspected that our Aura gauges would be displayed there. Ms. Goodwitch continued with, "The matches today will be decided by a randomizer, and any fights we don't have time for will be pushed to Thursday. Do not assume that you won't be fighting Thursday just because you fought today. Going forward, I will be selecting who your opponents will be in each class based on your performances. Are there any questions?"

Nobody said anything, so she pushed her glasses up with her riding crop and pressed a button on the tablet. "Good. Now, the first match shall be... Ruby Rose versus Cardin Winchester."

The resulting fight was interesting, to say the least. Ruby, with her giant scythe-rifle, was considerably faster than Cardin even when she wasn't amping her speed to eleven with her Semblance. Cardin did a decent job of deflecting her rifle rounds with his mace, so Ruby turned the entire round into a hit-and-run, slipping into his defenses with a swipe before darting out of his attack range. He never got a clean hit in, and after ten or so minutes the buzzer sounded to end the match. "The winner is Ruby Rose. Mr. Winchester, do you understand why you lost?"

Cardin grumbled something under his breath, but made sure his actual answer was loud enough to hear. "I didn't have a way to counter her speed, and should've focused on anticipating her moves rather than counter after the fact."

"Correct. Ms. Rose, excellent use of your speed; but make sure to change your attack patterns so that you remain unpredictable."

"Yes, Professor." Both teens returned to their teams in the stands, and since RWBY sat next to JNPR I heard Yang thank her sister for putting down the "big jerk." It was an odd feeling, seeing both of their stats ahead of time and watching how it played out. Cardin was specialized almost exclusively in STR, with a little CON to go with. His DEX was pretty low; and while his INT was decent, his WIS was at _twelve_. Combine that with him being six levels lower than Ruby, and his fate was sealed before the fight.

 _"So... what about me?"_ I had some STR and CON, sure, but the only truly unique thing about me was my skills. There was still a _huge_ gap between my peers and I.

Goodwitch pressed another button on the tablet. "The next match will be... Dove Bronzewing versus Jaune Arc."

 _"So soon?!"_ The look in the blond teacher's eyes didn't allow me to retreat, so I walked to the locker room and retrieved Crocea Mors. Dove didn't come with me, so I assumed he had his weapon on him already. As I held the sword in my hand, I realized that I hadn't observed anybody's weapons.

 **~Crocea Mors**

 **A sword and shield forged before the Great War and passed down the Arc bloodline. The appearance of the sword has dulled over time, but its sharpness and durability haven't declined since the day it was created.**

 **Properties: Mecha-shift (Shield)**

I gave the sword a small swing before putting it back into the sheathe, the description weighing heavily on my heart. Crocea Mors had always been passed father-to-son, but my father, Nicholas Arc, had tried to give it to my older sister Autumn instead; the only reason it was in my possession was that she hadn't wanted it, preferring spears to swords. Knowing who this sword had really been meant for... Crocea Mors had never really felt right in my hands. My mother's words rang through my head.

 _"Jaune, just remember: it's okay if Beacon doesn't work out for you. We'll be waiting for you here, okay?"_

I took a deep breath to settle my frustration. This was it, the moment I'd been scared of: my first live duel. Would I actually cut it in a school for Huntsmen?

 _"Hold on: shouldn't there be a quest for this? It seems important enough to me, first duel and all that comes with it."_ No notifications popped up, so I shook the thoughts from my head and returned to the arena. Dove was entering the room from the other side, so he likely had his weapon somewhere else. Ms. Goodwitch came over to me to set my Aura gauge to be displayed, so I took a moment to "Observe" Dove for the second time.

 **Dove Bronzewing**

 **Title: He who flies with the Squalls**

 **Level: 35 EXP: ErMac**

 **HP: 840/1260**

 **AP: 670/1680**

 **STR: 38**

 **DEX: 32**

 **CON: 42**

 **INT: 35**

 **WIS: 28**

 **CHA: 25**

 **Race: Human**

I tilted my head at seeing him already hurt. Visually he looked fine, if a little tired. I wanted to check on him, so I said, "Hey, Ms. Goodwitch: I'll fight anybody you want me to, but Dove over there looks a little hurt to me."

"What?" It worked as intended, with Goodwitch walking over to Dove and examining his scroll. Her voice was stern as she asked, "Young man, what happened to cause your Aura to go below fifty percent?"

Dove shifted back and forth on his feet, not quite wanting to meet her gaze. "Russell and I were sparring this morning, and it... got kind of intense. He's probably still hurting, too."

Glynda looked into the bleachers, and when she met the eyes of Mr. Mohawk he looked away from her. "Very well. Both of you will have to abstain for today; but it is your duty to be prepared for class, in _every_ way. Am I understood?"

"Yes ma'am." Their voices chimed in harmony and Dove made his way to the bleachers. Goodwitch turned back to face me and I couldn't help but notice her expression had softened a bit.

 **Your closeness with Glynda Goodwitch has increased by 2!**

"Mr. Arc, it is a good thing that you're looking out for your fellow students. You still need to fight, but given what just occurred I suppose I'll offer you a choice: you may pick your opponent, or I can randomize the selection.

 **Choose your quest!**

Ah, there we go.

 **(Normal) Quest: Defeat Sky!**

 **He's your best chance at victory, so prove to everyone you deserve to be at Beacon!**

 **Completion: 80,000 EXP, increased closeness with RWBY/JNPR/Goodwitch.**

 **Failure: EXP varies on performance, Cardin bullying worsens.**

 **Bonus objective: ?**

 **or**

 **(Expert) Quest: Challenge Yang!**

 **She's a beatdown brawler that stands among the best of Beacon's freshmen! Can your tactics close the power gap between you?**

 **Completion: 800,000 EXP, increased Closeness with JNPR/Goodwitch/Beacon populace, Massively increased closeness with RWBY.**

 **Failure: EXP varies on performance, Cardin bullying worsens.**

 **Bonus objective: ?**

I inwardly gawked at the choice presented to me. The rewards for the Expert Quest were no joke, but even the Sky fight would be difficult for me. Failure for either options was unacceptable, even without the game laying the facts out so plainly. So, Sky or Yang?

"I think I'd like to fight Dove's teammate Sky." In the end, discretion is the better part of valor: I would rather take my chances against a fighter only four times my level than fight somebody over five times. Plus, I saw her punch a giant bird out of sky; I'm not messing with that.

Goodwitch finished the set-up with my scroll while we waited for Sky to return. I calculated that my loss would occur if I hit 210 AP, meaning that I couldn't afford to use my new Aura-intensive skills yet; at least, not until I had them properly worked into my fighting style or I got desperate.

No points for guessing which happened first.

Sky returned with a halberd in his arms, and I let out a relieved sigh when I failed to see any gun components. His was a mid-range weapon, so I was already going to have a hard time getting in; it was a good thing I wasn't going to be picked off from a distance, too.

 **Sky Lark**

 **Title: The Timid Bird.**

 **Level: 31 EXP: ErMac**

 **HP: 1050/1050**

 **AP: 1400/1400**

 **STR: 35**

 **DEX: 25**

 **CON: 35**

 **INT: 40**

 **WIS: 25**

 **CHA: 20**

 _"He seems to be smart, but I think he has the lowest charisma out of everyone that isn't me. Is there a clue to what CHA actually does for people?"_

Sky had his scroll connected to the monitor, and within a moment we were at our starting positions. Goodwitch raised her voice and asked, "Are both of you ready?" We nodded silently. "Good. On my mark... Go!"

Neither of us rushed in. I stepped forward a bit to gauge how aggressive he would be, but he kept his Halberd in front of him and simply began to circle me. This silent exchange went on for several moments, and I realized that he had no intention of attacking first. _"I guess I'll have to start us off."_

I rushed forward shield-first, and as I got within his range he thrust his weapon at me. It struck hard at the center of my guard and forced me back a step, and while I recovered he began to swipe at my feet from the right. I jumped over his attack and pulled my sword arm back to swing. He managed to bring his weapon up in time to block my downward blow, and I saw his eyes widen a bit despite the fact that he was easily holding me off with his superior STR.

The clumsy clash continued for a moment before he shoved me off. For a moment I fully believed that he would push his advantage, but as I got my bearings back I saw that he had retreated a bit instead. _"The game wasn't kidding, he is timid. Either way, I really wish I'd been taught some type of swordsmanship by dad; I don't know what to do here."_

A quick check revealed that neither one of us had lost any Aura. Taking advantage of that, I decided to experiment a bit. I closed the distance again, just enough to prompt his retaliatory thrust. Rather than block his attack again, I leaned hard to the right and slid Crocea Mors along rhe ground towards sky, sending a wave of energy out with "Demon Fang." As per the description it traveled along the ground, but it had a surprising height to it; with him only as far away as he halberd, the blast almost immediately caught him from torso to leg and sent him reeling.

Not wanting to let the opportunity go, I charged and stabbed my own blade into his black chestplate, making sure to observe him both before and after doing so.

 **HP: 1000 - 910**

 **AP: 1250 - 980**

Telling myself that I'd do the math when I wasn't in the middle of fight, I backed up to gather my breath. As awkward as it had been, I'd managed to score two clean hits, and that alone made me feel better...

Until I heard the crowd start talking. "How did he-" "Was that Dust?" "That didn't look like any type of Dust I've seen before."

I'd just made a huge mistake: I'd forgotten that prior to initiation, I didn't even know what Aura _was_ , much less be capable of using it so blatantly. _"Normal people don't learn new techniques so quickly, Jaune!_ _I'll tell them it's a part of Crocea Mors- No, Ruby knows the truth about that. Maybe I'll just say it's my Semblance-"_

" **Gah!** " Sky punished me for my inattentiveness, sending his halberd into my right shoulder. The shock of it made me drop the sword, and before I could react he planted his weapon next to mine and slapped it like a hockey puck, sending it scattering out of the ring. I made to hit him with my shield, but he skirted backwards and did a bit of a flourish. He went from being timid to cocky in a heartbeat; I understood why, of course. He had effectively disarmed me for the rest of the match. On top of that...

 **HP: 630 - 520**

 **AP: 775 - 445**

 _"He hit like a **truck** compared to me; I'm lucky he didn't go for my head. I need to close the level gap ASAP."_ There was still the fight at hand, however, and Ms. Goodwitch didn't seem in any hurry to call the match. All I had on me was my shield and my fists, and I couldn't use the shield expansion trick I'd pulled on the beowolf.

How could I salvage this?

X

 **Cliffhanger-no-Jutsu! Sorry, chapter size limit: writing and editing on a phone sucks.**

 **Are my action scenes okay? Am I staying in character? Let me know how I'm doing!**

 **Until next time, GG!**


	4. Chapter 4- Jaune Vs (2)

**A/N:** **The wrap-up to the fight with Sky (sorry again for separating them.)**

 **This chapter starts a contest! Details and rules in the end notes.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **sundrawnshadow:** Hope you enjoy this one as well!

 **Wingd Knight:** Sorry about that cliff, but my phone demands I keep things on the smaller side.

 **Plasma Dragon:** Noooooo

 **NinjaFang:** Thank you very much.

 **Remzal:** Patience, my friend; patience.

 **Guest (That Guy):** Confidence isn't quite the answer to what charisma is. Grimm cannot be 'charmed,' no, but they will be in an omake down the line. For the Bard part, I was thinking more "Inspire Heroics."

 **Twilight Rift:** Shhh, don't cry. Here's the next chapter.

 **Macheddy:** Wouldn't we all?!

 **Firemission:** I'll bet my hat that Jade had red eyes; it was even called Fonic Eyes in the lore, I believe. Can't we all agree that FF 13-2 was a great gam- *Spasm* ...It was a good ga- *Choke* ...it exists.

 **Guest (me):** Star wars started as a movie; therefore, sadly, no.

 **Dark Durian:** You're blinking a lot; do you have something in your eye? Real talk, no shoryuken. He does have the shield proficiency skill; remember the trial fight?

 **ARSLOTHES:** Here it is!

 **Shadow of God:** PM conversation, so I'll just repeat my thanks for your praise.

 **Gruffard:** I'm sorry! I'll try not to make it a habit, but it all depends on where the word count lands and how much my phone will let me get away with.

 **Zaine:** PM talk.

 **Azparo Kazeshini:** Glad you enjoyed it.

 **Gravenimage:** Thank you very much.

 **Shioshiro:** All will make sense in time, my child.

 **Unknowndeath:** The thing is: Jaune can only learn abilities from particular skillbooks (as per the real Gamer story) and games. Stories that originated in other media first (manga/anime/film/etc.) are not available for him to learn. As far as transforming skills in general... I'd rather not; it wouldn't feel like Jaune anymore.

 **Aronamad:** I'm glad you agree with me regarding some of the other gamer stories (even the Canon one!) Thanks for tuning in.

 **theawsomest5:** Thanks you for that.

 **There was also a guest review I accidentally deleted that said I should stop padding my word count with the review responses. Sorry I deleted your review bro (feel free to repost it, I'll make sure it clears this time) but, even if it wasn't my intention, you were right. I hated cutting out a section of the previous chapter because I hit my word count limit;** **so, effective this chapter, I shall be responding to registered user reviews by PM. This will leave me more space for proper chapter lengths. So thank you, anon-san.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

My opponent resumed his circular strafing, though his body had a different edge to it; whereas before he had been treating me like a wild animal he didn't know how to approach, now he was like a predator figuring out when to place his killing strike. I cursed myself for letting my focus drop and pondered my options... attentively this time. _"A fully charged hadouken_ _would take me down to 195 AP, which in the best case would get me a tie... not what I want. I could do a 3 second shot and win, but the issue is I don't know how much damage it actually does._ _For that matter, even a full charge might not do it."_

Sky suddenly closed the gap, and I ducked as his halberd went over my head. Acting out of sheer desperation, I kicked off of the ground with both feet from my crouching position. Shifting my shield forwards as I charged him, we collided and I took him off of his feet; he hit the ground with a hefty 'thud', the wind taken out of his lungs. Catching myself as I stood over him, I quickly thrust my open hand to the space just above his chest and used a one-handed hadouken. Blue fire erupted onto his armor, disappearing as quickly as it appeared.

 **HP:** **910 - 835 - 785**

 **AP:** **980 - 755 - 605**

 _"I did more damage with the ram than with the hadouken, but it makes sense; it is only level one at the moment."_ Sky made an awkward stab from his spot on the floor, so I did an amazing (read: clumsy) combat roll to the side before launching into another shield charge. You might think it was weird move, and it really was, but I was out of options; plus, you shouldn't fix what isn't broke. Sky was barely managing to rise when I connected once more, so instead of taking my hit dead-on he rolled with the impact, allowing him to recover much quicker that time and stand up with his halberd at the ready.

 **HP:** **785 - 745**

 **AP:** **605 - 485**

 **Your Shield Proficiency skill level has increased by 1!**

 _"Thanks, game, but now isn't the time for that!"_ The good news was that I was making progress, only losing the cost of the hadouken in Aura. Sky was breathing heavily, and upon seeing that I also noted that I while I felt a little out of breath, there was no pain from using myself as a battering ram. The pain from getting stabbed in the shoulder had also vanished as quickly as it came. _"It must be Gamer's Body again_ ; _that's a little ridiculous._ "

Out of the bleachers a booming voice called out, "You better not mess this up, Sky!" I registered it as Cardin's voice immediately, but made sure to not let him distract me. Sky, however, had a more visible reaction: he seemed to withdraw into himself, even while sticking the halberd further forward.

Now I would never say I was (or ever will be) an expert on weapon stances, but even the me at that time could tell it looked off. Sky's arms were overextended, and I was pretty sure that if I hit his weapon hard enough he'd be forced to drop it. The practical side of me, the _gamer_ side of me, was ecstatic about that kind of opportunity, but...

 _"Is that the kind of victory I wanna brag about?"_ Cardin's shout had disturbed the very atmosphere of the fight; it felt strained, dirty almost. Sky wasn't looking at me anymore, he was looking _through_ me, at some unseen enemy. My brain said 'Now, Jaune! Hit him hard and disarm him!' My mouth said-

"Hey, Sky." He visibly jumped at me addressing him, but his shock faded into confusion as I took a moment to figure out what I should say. "Cardin isn't down here right now; it's just you and me. Take a deep breath."

I exaggerated my inhale and exhale to show him I was serious. "Come on, with me: in," I audibly sipped the air, "Out." With a great push of air, I gestured with my hands for him to obey me. We did it together once, twice, three times; each time we did, he seemed to relax more and more. The bizarre routine over, I said, "Feel better, man?"

Sky nodded at me without saying anything, shifting his hands on his weapon so he was comfortable and prepared. Taking that as my cue, I hoisted my shield up once more and approached with slow steps. Neither of us made circles this time; we simply approached each other cautiously, mutually respecting the fact that this would likely be our final exchange. Deciding on my course of action, I also made my decision in regards to what to tell everybody about what they'd seen me do: 'I just have a cool, Aura firing Semblance.'

I'd make it up as I went along, basically.

I shifted the shield so that I was holding it to the side a little. Sky stopped moving to force me to attack because, remember, I was still short a weapon. I cocked my shield arm back and, praying to Monty that my plan would work, threw it at him with none of the skill of Captain Atlas. He deflected it upwards with his halberd, resulting in a loud 'clang', and shifted his weight forward to attack me; that was when his face met my uncharged hadouken.

The fireball caught him right on the nose, making his head jerk backwards. I pegged the (for lack of a better word) hitstun to be about the same as the game I got it from. Simple hadoukens don't do the greatest of damage-

 **HP: 745 - 695**

 **AP: 485 - 335**

\- but they do enough. The buzzer went off and Goodwitch announced, "The winner of this match is Jaune Arc."

I walked up to Sky and stuck my hand out. "Good fight, man. Remind me to hold my sword in a better grip next time. "

His brown eyes sized me up, followed by him accepting my hand and smirking a little. "You're a weird one, helping me out like that; thanks, though."

"Trust me, you don't know the half of me being weird."

 **Quest Success!**

 **Bonus objective: Don't win by ring-out. (Pass) - 2,000 EXP**

 **You earned: 82,000 EXP**

 **Your level has increased by 1! Your level has increased by 1! Your level has increased by 1! Your level has increased by 1!**

 **Your closeness with Ruby/Yang/Blake/Weiss/Pyrrha/Ren/Nora/Sky have increased by 5!**

 **Your closeness with Glynda Goodwitch has increased by 3!**

 **By putting Honor before Reason in the completion of a Quest, your CHA has increased by 2!**

 _"Seriously, what the **hell** is Charisma?!"_

Ms. Goodwitch walked up to us for the post-battle talk. "Both of you allowed nerves or distractions to interfere with your judgement; you cannot allow that to happen on the field. Mr. Lark, you should always think of your opponent as armed, even when you don't see a weapon. Mr. Arc, while I commend your attitude in aiding your classmates, your fighting style is very reckless. See to it that you change it."

"Yes ma'am." Answering in unison, we nodded and separated while I retrieved my gear. I laughed to myself a bit as I put Crocea Mors into its sheathe; my big, meaningful first fight and I wind up putting my shield to more use. It was a little sad, really. Making my way up the bleachers as the next match was called, I passed by team CRDL and-

 **You sense harmful intent!**

-rolled my eyes as the Game warned me about Cardin's glare. The quest never promised that the bullying would ease up, only that it wouldn't get worse. _"Oh well."_

Thankfully, my friends had much happier reactions to my return. Ruby was almost jumping out of her seat as she said, "Jaune, that was so cool! What was that fireball thing you used?!"

"I _think_ it's my Semblance, but I'm still trying to figure it out. Right now it eats up a lot of my Aura, so I have to be gentle with it." It was all true, even if it wasn't the whole truth. "I'm just glad that the shield throw trick worked."

"Yep, exactly once." Yang was simultaneously smiling and smirking; impressive. "Too bad everyone saw you do it, 'cause now we all know how you fight."

"Well, I wasn't exactly supposed to have my sword knocked out of my hands like that. Anyways, I'm going to write some things down before I forget them, so I'll be wrapped in my own head for a minute here."

"Taking notes after a spar is a good way to mark where you need improvement," Pyrrha remarked with a nod. They all let me be, so I pulled out my scroll and created a blank document on the notepad app; I didn't have any pens or paper on me, sadly.

 _"Alright, time to crunch some numbers before I forget them. Demon Fang and the Hadouken both did 50 HP and 150 AP, the charge that he didn't roll with did 75 HP and 225 AP... So, Aura takes three quarters of the damage that would be done to HP. I wonder why the Demon Fang costs more...? Wait, I got it; the hadouken only goes so far, while the fang says it keeps going until it actually hits something."_ I heard my friends cheering somebody on, but I elected not to join them. _"Also, figured out a bit about CON: it gives a flat 30 HP and 40 AP per point. That seems way out of balance for how much Aura absorbs per hit, though. Things to work on: one, test damage received wearing armor vs. without; two, find out damage and hitstun of charged hadoukens; and three, Charisma. Maybe I can ask for somebody's opinion on it in a general sense without making myself look even weirder."_

Somebody put their hand on my shoulder, and when I looked up I saw that it belonged to Pyrrha. She beckoned me to lean over, and I complied, which is when she whispered, "So, were you out on that late-night walk to test out your Semblance?"

I felt myself blush; apparently, I hadn't been as sneaky as I thought. "Yeah, pretty much. Sorry if I woke you up walking in and out of the room. "

She shook her head. "You didn't bother me, I just so happened to be awake when you left. I'm impressed that you discovered your Semblance so quickly; many people spend quite some time acclimating to their Aura before they're able to find it. Another question, though... About the laughter runor?"

"That wasn't me," I quickly denied. Nobody could ever know. "I, uh, heard it like the others did, but was so wrapped up in my training that I didn't pay it any attention."

Her smile told me that I had answered a bit _too_ quickly, and she put a finger to her lips as if to say 'I'll keep it a secret.' The buzzer signifying the end of a fight sounded, so we both joined the class in clapping for the participants. The remainder of the class proceeded without incident, save Ms. Goodwitch asking Nora to be more careful with her grenade rounds in a tiny arena. I examined myself just before we were dismissed.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Newbie Hero**

 **LV: 12 EXP: 17.2%**

 **HP: 520/630**

 **AP: 605/840**

 **STR: 19**

 **DEX: 12**

 **CON: 21**

 **INT: 13**

 **WIS: 11**

 **CHA: 20 (1)**

 **Skill points: 16**

 _"My AP regenerates, though that might be how Aura works anyways. No ErMac thing here, that's something else to research."_ Class ended and I decided to make my way to the library, since using their computers was faster than looking things up with a scroll. Some people were busy studying, so I made sure to stay quiet as I found the first available monitor. _"Okay, let's try searching for 'ermac' and see what pops up."_

A few seconds later, the search engine presented my rather... simple options. _"Ermac, the character... another one... one more... okay, I'm just gonna click on one of these and hope I find something."_

I wound up selecting the Remnantpedia link, and went sentence by sentence looking for any clue. Several minutes passed before I found this gem: "It is a little-known fact that 'Ermac' is short for 'Error Macro'"

I promptly typed 'error macro' into the search engine. Ignoring links back to the character, I stumbled upon the following when I clicked on a Macrosoft Excel help page:

[The Macro Error message appears when there is an error in the macro that you were running. The specified method cannot be used on the specified object for one of the following reasons:

An argument contains a value that is not valid. A common cause of this problem is trying to gain access to an object that does not exist; for example, Workbooks(5), when only three workbooks are open.

-or-

The method cannot be used in the applied context. Specifically, some Range object methods require that the range contain data. If the range does not contain data, the method fails.]

Naturally, I struggled a bit trying to put that into the context of my Semblance. _"So... my friends don't have_ _EXP? Maybe... maybe it's because the Game is my Semblance and can't affect them like it does me. Life isn't a game for them."_

I opened my menu and flipped through it a bit. _"But the party options explicitly mention EXP sharing. I don't get it; and, again, I hate my developer."_

Separating myself from the monitor, I looked around and noticed Blake sitting at a table that was tucked away a bit. She had a two stacks of books three high, and none of them looked like textbooks. Curious, and looking for a reason to not think about the Game, I slipped over to where she was sitting and said, "Hey, Blake. Nice to see somebody I know here."

She glanced up only long enough to verify who I was before returning to her book. "Hello. Do you need something?"

It was a curt response, but it didn't deter me. "Just curious about what you're reading, really. Can I borrow one of those books?"

Blake gestured to the stack on her right, so I picked up the book on top. The front title said "The Great Hunt," and the side panel revealed the series name "The Wheel of Time." I vividly recalled my sister Amethyst reading the series, and started talking to Blake as much as to myself. "My sister used to read this series! I loved the way Robert Jordan wrote, but for some reason she only had books four through nine; I stopped reading since it felt like I was missing a lot of the story. This one is book two, right?"

That earned a reaction; Blake looked up at me with a look bordering on surprise. "That's right, actually. Does your sister read a lot?"

I laughed. "If we were at my house, I'd show you her library. The rest of my family, myself included, would sit and listen to her put on mini-plays where she'd reenact her favorite scenes. Sometimes I'd be roped into helping her out, so I developed a flair for performing thanks to her. Do you know if they have the first book here?"

"I didn't see it," came the disappointing answer; however, I couldn't help but notice her bow twitch as she kept talking. "But the one you're holding is a decent enough starting place, if you want to read through the series."

"Thanks, I'll probably check it out. See you around, Blake." I gave her a wave and went up to the librarian's counter. A minute later, I was checked out and on my way to the dorm room.

Sadly for me, I was forced to spend the next couple of hours going through the readings for Port's and Oobleck's classes. It was more productive than the actual lectures, sure, but I didn't feel like I got anywhere. Notably, I didn't get another 'INT increase' message, so I figured that bad studying wouldn't help me any... just like real life.

Giving myself a break, I pulled out my game container and extracted my next potential skill download: Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the Gamecube.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Light Attack"?**

 _"The move where you charge his spin, and then release it to hit all of the enemies around you? Neat!"_

 **Error! You are missing these prerequisites: Minimum DEX of 200.**

"WHAT." My squawk got the attention of my team, and they all turned to me with questioning looks. "Sorry, guys, I thought that... there was a huge scratch. All good, though."

Nora, clearly happy to take a break from her own studying, pranced over and asked, "Ooh, is this what you're playing today, Jaune?"

I rolled with it, naturally. "Yeah, though I wish my sister Hazel hadn't deleted some of the memory card data out of spite. I lost the data for this game and Smash Brothers; it was so tragic, I haven't played them since."

Nora jokingly began to console me with 'There, there.' Pyrrha asked me, "Is it another fighting game?"

Oh, she was about to learn about the greatness that was the Chaos in this game. "Nope, more of a platformer. Come here, I'll start a new file and show you all how to play."

X

 **Contest!**

 **Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle) will be a recurring thing throughout the story, particularly the Chao Garden. Thanks to that, I'm looking for potential names for the chaos! Every one of the Main 8 will have an 'assigned' chao. So, here are the rules:**

 **(1)** **Submissions are done by PMs, not reviews.** **(2) Only one entry per user. (3) Submit your chao name, which character will 'claim' it, and why the character would feel inspired to use that name. (4) If applicable, specify what color egg the chao will come from. Jewel-colored chao will not be available as choices, sorry. (5) As per the original game, there is a 7 letter/character limit on the chao names. This is simply for authenticity.**

 **I will select my favorites and put them in the story as appropriate. This contest will run for a week, cutting off on** **June 5th.**

True story: I started reading the Wheel of Time from book two, The Great Hunt. I loved the entire series (RIP Jordan), but, admittedly, have never read book one.

 **For now, GG!**


	5. Chapter 5- Skill Shop!

**A/N: I want to take this opportunity to clear up some misunderstandings. When I started this story, I made a promise to myself to keep part of it focused on games and their franchises since so few Gamer fics do that; as such, I will _not_ be adding skills or techniques from franchises or IPs that started outside of games. If it started as a manga, comic, anime, film, or book, it will not be added to this story.** **For example: Dragon Ball has a lot of licensed games, but it first appeared as a manga; therefore, Jaune will not learn any moves from that series even if he finds one of those games.**

 **If you have a suggestion for a skill that came from a game first (street fighter being the easiest example, barring the fact that I already used it) I will be happy to try and put it in the story, provided that it won't break the narrative.**

 **Now, have some cute Chao goodness!**

 **GL; HF!**

X

I gave the controller to Ren as the game booted up. "The story mode is split into two parts: the Hero story, and the Dark story. Beating the full game requires playing both all the way through, so I suggest you start with the Hero side. I won't backseat game you here because there's a little robot named Omochao that'll do that for me, so my only word of advice is that there are three aqua blue boxes in each stage. Try to find and break at least one per stage as you play."

Ren nodded and created a new save file. He spent a moment getting his hands used to the shape of the controller, clicking in the shoulder buttons with each finger to find a comfortable hold. Satisfied, he selected the story mode and NPR started watching the opening cutscene.

I had my own, unique reason for letting the others play: I wanted to see if I could improve my singing skills by joining in with the background music. _"I will not have my singing be insulted!"_

On-screen, Sonic broke out of a military helicopter and dropped to the ground while holding onto a long strip of metal. The stage loading screen ran for a moment, and I swear I heard Ren pop his thumbs in preparation. A heartbeat later, Sonic is metal-snowboarding down a busy city street while upbeat rock played in the background. I started softly singing the tune while Nora headbanged to it next to me.

Ren was methodical in his approach as City Escape went on: he would stand still for just a moment to take in the scene, and if there were no discernible secrets to find he'd promptly dash through, ignoring the enemies that weren't immediately in his way. Pyrrha's eyes flit back and forth between the screen and Ren's hands; apparently, she was trying to learn it in anticipation of playing it herself. I smiled at her enthusiasm, happy that she was willing to take part in something so silly.

After several minutes and a stressful chase by an aggressive truck, Ren stood victorious at the end of the stage with a C-rank under his belt. I was impressed with him, not only because that was decent for a first-time run, but because he'd managed to find one of the unicorns available in the level. The screen faded to black and Ren started to pass the controller, but I stopped him and said, "Hold on, you haven't seen the best part of the game yet."

He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything back. Soon, the Chao World loaded and Sonic was standing in the middle of a black room covered in stars. Ren walked towards the only visible door, and in a flash he was taken to a tropical island. There were palm trees, a waterfall flowed endlessly in the back, and two eggs sat waiting to be hatched. The moment the area loaded, all of the animals and Chaos drives (which were thin, colored vials that enemies dropped) Ren had collected jumped out of his body and landed in various sections of the map.

Ren moved Sonic to the egg closest to him, and pressed the button prompt that had him pick up said egg. Nothing happened, so Ren fiddled with the controls and wound up managing to gently shake the egg. A few seconds passed just like that, and when felt like he had done enough he placed the shell right where he'd found it. Nora was almost jumping out of her seat. "What are we growing, Jaune? Can we feed them, name them, make them our babies?!"

I only smiled.

 _Pop!_

The egg shook itself back and forth before hatching, revealing a small blue creature with round features save for the very top of the head that ended with a raindrop tip. Above its head was a yellow orb that bobbed as the Chao looked left and right. It stared at its apparent father, Sonic, before deciding to crawl over the nearest tree to investigate it. I wish I'd recorded the girls' expressions.

" _Awww_!" Pyrrha and Nora both swooned over the newborn, and I pumped my fist at managing to reel them in. Nobody can resist cuteness; even four-time tournament champions are putty before the might that is the Chao!

That seemed to be the best time to fill them all in, so I did. "That's a Chao. You raise them by giving them the animals you collect, as well as various fruits you can find on the trees or buy in the market. They take on different traits depending on what you give them."

Ren took that as his cue and grabbed the closest stray animal, a blue raccoon. He brought it to the Chao, and when he got close enough the Chao grabbed the raccoon and nuzzled its face against it. After a moment the raccoon was dropped with a spark of light, and a chart appeared on the screen detailing the small growth the Chao had to its stats. Most prominently, the Chao grew a cute little tail that mirrored the animal it just rubbed faces with. "The Chao can participate in races and karate, so raising their stats is important if you want them to compete. We can have up to twenty four Chao, eight per garden. They can be named if we exit the story mode, but I recommend we get at least another stage or two into the game before we do that. Any questions?"

Pyrrha raised a hand and asked, "How do we get more of them?"

"You can buy mono-colored eggs at the market or breed two adult Chao together. The more emblems you have, the more variety there is in the available colors."

Ren caught onto my choice of words. "Mono-colored? What about the one we just hatched?"

"Ah. These two will change colors based on how we raise them on top of all the animal features, while mono-colored Chao will always be that base color." Ren set about hatching the other Chao while I talked, and split up the spoils as evenly as he could between them.

Over the next half-hour JNPR got familiar with the first three stages of the Hero story and the basics of Chao care. Pyrrha favored Knuckles's emerald-searching Wild Canyon while Nora thoroughly enjoyed Tail's shooty bang-bang stage (her words, not mine.) Neither Chao had a name because Nora's first choice, Snuffaluffagus, surpassed the character limit by a mile.

 **Your Singing skill level has increased by 1!**

I gave silent thanks to Knuckles BGM for helping me on that bit, even if I did have to sing it under my breath.

The festivities came to an end when we all decided it was time to retire. We had Oobleck first thing in the morning, and Monty knows we'd need our rest to keep up with that man; however, I had healed my HP from eating dinner and thus was neither sleepy nor hurt, so rather than actually sleep I elected to lie in bed and contemplate the Game once more. _"We get a break in the afternoon thanks to a scheduling conflict in Port's classes, so that might be a good time to head into Vale and see what games I can find being sold for cheap. I can probably forget about Sonic's skill for a while because... I mean, holy shit. Not counting any grinding I manage to do, I'd need forty-seven levels dedicated solely to reaching 200 DEX,_ _and I just can't do that. I wonder if I can use multiple of the same game to boost a skill up faster? Probably not. Still, maybe I can-"_

 **Your closeness with Ruby has increased by 4!**

 **Your closeness with Yang and Blake have increased by 2!**

 _"...hmm?"_ I looked around the room to make sure I was the only person awake, and I was. I opened up the "Beacon- Students" friend list.

 **Arranged by closeness**

 **Ruby Rose -34- Good Friend**

 **Pyrrha Nikos -31- Partner**

 **Nora Valkyrie -26- Fearless Leader**

 **Lie Ren -25- Friend and Leader**

 **Yang Xiao Long -22- Friend**

 **Blake Belladonna -12- Acquaintance**

 **Weiss Schnee -5- Acquaintance**

 **Sky Lark -5- Acquaintance**

 **Cardin Winchester -(-15)- (Expletive Deleted)**

 _"They might be talking about me over in their dorm room. Huh... not sure how I feel about that. On the other hand, just what did I do to make Cardin hate me like this?"_ I shrugged to myself and moved on with my Gamer thoughts.

 _"The good news is that I have sixteen points to spend on my stats. I don't want to use them all right now since I don't know what I will or won't need from here on out, but I can at least spend some on... Charisma and Wisdom, because I don't know if I can grind those like INT or STR._

I plugged four points into WIS and five into CHA, because I like having multiples of fives when I can, then hit 'accept'.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Newbie Hero**

 **LV: 12 EXP: 17.2%**

 **HP: 630/630**

 **AP: 840/840**

 **STR: 19**

 **DEX: 12**

 **CON: 21**

 **INT: 13**

 **WIS: 15**

 **CHA: 25 (2)**

 **Skill points: 7**

I didn't necessarily feel any different; but, to be fair, it was (probably) impossible to feel a difference in yourself from growing wiser. I also noted that I now received two bonus points to CHA from my title instead of one. _"Alright, that's done. After I go shopping, I'll hit the gym and buff myself up. I wonder if after a year or so I'll be stacked like Spruce Willis; muscular, but in a lean way."_

I still had plenty of time to burn since I wasn't going to sleep, so I brought out "The Great Hunt" and started reading by the moonlight coming through the window. It was time to see how Rand Al' Thor shifted from shepherd to hero.

The sun was just starting to rise as I finished up. I'd thoroughly enjoyed the book and made a note to check out as much of the series from the library as I could. Preemptively turning off my alarm, I took my shower and made my way to breakfast ahead of my team.

I made it to the cafeteria well before most of the students and decided to experiment a little more with my inventory as I went through the food line. Once I found a place to sit down by myself, I opened up the relevant menu and hovered my tray of food over an item box. As soon as I let the tray go, it completely disappeared and popped up in my sixth slot (the other five were all food as well.) This made me happy since, so far, I had only put individual dishes in out of a need to avoid suspicion; it's easier to slip an orange away than an entire tray. This new info meant I could load my inventory with bags or boxes of items without having to separate everything out and waste precious slots.

I was only mildly surprised when the first of my friends to join me weren't my team, but Weiss and Blake. As they sat down across from me with their food I said, "Good morning! Did the sisters sleep in?"

Weiss rolled her eyes and said, "No. Yang decided she wanted to take an extra long shower this morning for her hair and jumped ahead of Ruby. I'd be surprised if there's any hot water left for our leader."

I gave a sympathetic 'hmm.' Growing up with seven sisters meant establishing a pecking order for shower rights, and I didn't always win. The conversation lulled as they ate, with Blake reading and eating at the same time and Weiss being... Weiss. After ten minutes passed just like that, Ruby, Yang, and my team made their way into the cafeteria. Ruby gave me a smile and a wave as she sat down beside Weiss, while Yang-

"Good morning, Jaune! How goes our second-favorite blonde?"

-gave me a one-armed bear hug of nearly Nora proportions. Squeezing me from my right side inwards, I swear I felt my bones breaking despite my Aura and Gamer's Body. My voice was high and airy as I answered, "I'm good _errgk!_ Um, did I do something to make you angry?"

She laughed as she let me go, walking around the table to finish the RWBY color coordination. "Nah, just expressing my thanks for standing up for my sister to the big bad _Weiss_ queen the other day. Last night she told us about the argument you had with her after Port's class."

I raised my eyebrows at that before waving a hand dismissively. "It really wasn't that big a deal. I'm surprised you talked about it, Weiss."

"I wasn't planning on it, but they kept pestering me about why I was, quote, 'suddenly much more agreeable' compared to before."

"Ruby used her puppy dog eyes," offered Blake from her book. "It was pretty effective at loosening her lips."

Ruby herself stuck her tongue out playfully, and I made a mental note to avoid any weaponized cuteness. "Thanks for helping us out, Jaune."

"Hey, like I said, it wasn't a big deal; and besides, what are friends for?" I fought down my oncoming blush; I really didnt want to be thanked, but I couldn't deny that it felt good.

Ruby kept talking, addressing the entire group this time. "So what's everyone gonna do during our big break today?"

"I'm going to get back into my fitness routine," said Pyrrha. "I fell behind a bit while I was adjusting to the time difference between here and Mistral, so I need to bring it back."

Yang pointed her fork at the redhead. "I think I'll join you for that, Cereal Girl. I could use a good workout partner, since Ruby refuses to train with me outside of spars anymore."

"Because your weights are insane!"

Ren spoke up, "I'll be trying out some new food recipes today. Yes, Nora, there will be normal pancakes for you to eat." The ginger girl grinned at him in response. Blake simply pointed to her book, which we all understood as 'library,' and Weiss murmured something about studying.

I said, "I'm headed into Vale for some shopping, but it shouldn't take too long. Not sure what I'll do afterwards."

"Ooh, what're you shopping for?" Ruby leaned forward enthusiastically. "I need to buy a new scope for my baby, so would it be okay if I came with?"

I opened my mouth to answer but Yang intercepted with, "Careful, Ruby. We both know what happened the last time Vomit Boy flew over Vale."

"Motion sickness is a common problem!" I blurt it out before instantly regretting it, not wanting to announce that I had a problem like _that_ to the whole school. I tucked my head into my arms on the table in embarrassment.

Ruby reached over and rubbed my head. "Don't worry, Jaune. I'll make sure to bring some paper bags."

"...Kill me, please..."

Oobleck's class proceeded the same way it did before: nearly impossible to follow. My despair was only alleviated by Pyrrha telling me she'd loan me her notes; I promised to pay her back however she wanted, and she just laughed and said it was okay as long as I didn't make it a habit.

After lunch, the teams all went their separate ways. I met up with Ruby by the Airship docks, my heart sinking at the thought of throwing up all over the bullhead; and, before you ask, Ruby did actually bring some bags. It didn't make me feel any better. As the transport lifted into the air, I braced myself for the inevitable feeling of a rising stomach.

 **The status effect "Motion Sickness" has been nullified by Gamer's Mind.**

 _"OH, THANK OUM!"_ I was spared the bane of any man's social life! _"Everything's coming up Jaune!"_

Ruby offered me a bag as we reached the needed altitude, but I waved her off and looked out of one of the windows. Normally that simple act was a luxury for me, but now I could enjoy the aerial view of Vale without worrying about losing my food.

The sight of the bustling city below struck me something fierce. As I saw thousands of people living their daily lives, I mentally connected it to my choice of career. _"This is why we fight: to protect all of this from the Grimm, from the darkness..."_

I flexed my hand and eyed my own status. _"...and with my Semblance, I know that I can grow stronger. Maybe stronger than any Arc before, even."_

The bullhead landed in the central section of Vale, letting the two of us and another Beacon student with a rather fashionable outfit off. My Observe told me that her name was Coco Adel, but I didn't have the time to analyze her stats before she left my view. My attention was brought back to my companion when she said, "So you never told me where you needed to go..."

"Oops, sorry. I want to go to a used video game store I know and shop around. I brought some games with me from home, but I kind of want to expand." 'My skill list' was the unspoken attachment to the end. "We can go ahead and get your scope first, there's plenty of time."

And get her scope we did! Ruby merrily dragged me along to her desired parts store, gushing a little about the new model scope she was buying. I listened attentively, making sure to nod or ask questions appropriately. Admittedly, I'm not as much of a weapon nut as she is; but I figured it wouldn't hurt to learn about it a little since my teammates also used weapons with guns.

We left the store with her scope, thanking the old man attending the counter for his time. My own destination was only a few blocks down, so we set an easy pace as we walked through town. You may be surprised to hear this, but I wasn't headed to the local Gamestop; instead, we were going to a place I personally knew called 'Games 'n' Stuff.'

You see, I had established that in order to see the skill I would learn I had to touch the actual disc. Gamestop keeps all of their used games behind the counter, only taking them out once the shopper had chosen the appropriate case. My store, however, kept only the most expensive games behind the desk. This would let me check almost all of the skills without issue, especially since I knew the owner from my hometown.

Together, Ruby and I crossed the entryway that I felt in my soul would change my life even more. Too bad I only had 675 Lien to spare, but I could at least establish which games I might hunt for in the future. The owner, a family friend named Blossom (yes, really), looked up at us and smiled when he recognized me. He was a middle-aged man with faded red hair and blue eyes, a few wrinkles marring what my sister Autumn assured me was an otherwise handsome face. "Hello, Jaune. I'm surprised to see you here in the middle of the day. Aren't you attending Beacon?"

"Yep, but we kinda got an off day today. Blossom, this is my friend Ruby. Ruby, this man has been friends with my family from their own Beacon days."

Ruby gave a slight bow. "Nice to meet you. You're a retired Huntsman?"

"The pleasure's mine, and not really. I went to Beacon since my family wantrd me to, but I dropped out my second year when I realized my heart wasn't in it. Still, I learned enough to protect myself from the Grimm, so that was a plus. Anyways, we're not here to talk history. Whatcha' looking for, Jaune?"

"Nothing in particular; I'm just browsing some of your used games. Do you mind if I check the condition of the games I like?"

"Go ahead, as long as you don't leave 'em out." I went over to the PS3 section while Ruby began browsing his figurines. The first thing I looked for was Street Fighter 4, to test if I could boost the skill level. Finding it and the Ultra re-release side-by-side, I popped them both open and received duplicate messages.

 **You have already used this Technical Machine.**

 _"Too bad. They're probably both the Hadouken since they're basically the same game... but what about the next game?"_ I slipped over to the PS4 area and found a used copy of SF V for 400 Lien.

 **You have already learned a skill from [Street Fighter].**

 _That_ got my attention. _"I can only learn one skill per franchise? Crap, this means if I'm not careful I could lock myself out of better skills by accident. This suddenly got way more tense for me; still, I don't want to be too scare to get new skills, otherwise I'll just be wasting time."_

Setting that game back where I found it, I wandered back over to the PS3 area and began to ponder. _"I don't want to look weird by checking every game here, so I should start with the games I know already and research the franchises I don't know later. Let's start simple: Mortal Kombat, 2009 Version."_

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Scorpion's Spear"?**

 _"Oooh, I'll hold onto this. Bonus, only 165 Lien! What's next... How about Metal Gear?"_ I couldn't find a copy of MGS 4 or the HD collection, but I did find Metal Gear Rising for 149 Lien. I'd heard good things about it, but hadn't actually looked into buying it before.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Ripper Mode"?**

 _"That... sounds ominous. I'm gonna set this down for now and look it up on Blutube later."_

Ruby called out from the front desk. "Jaune, how's it coming along?"

"Almost done, just looking for one more game." Feeling pressed for time, I hurriedly eyed through the selection for my last option. _"Darn it, some of the games I know are just missing completely. I'll need to come by in a couple weeks when he's restocked._

I stumbled upon a large grouping of one game: Final Fantasy XIII. It definitely wasn't a favorite of mine, but I grabbed the game since it was all that caught my eye.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Cure"?**

 _"Oh. That'll do nicely!"_ Bringing my two selections up, I paid a grand total of 330 Lien and walked out with Ruby a decently happy man. Now I'd just have to avoid the questions of what happened to the games after I absorb them.

X

 **You have to admit, spending the equivalent of thirty bucks to learn two unique skills is not a bad day.**

 **The Chao contest is still ongoing! I've only gotten two entries so far, with only Jaune's Chao chosen behind the scenes, so you're (almost) guaranteed the name you want!**

 **Below this is the first omake written for the fic. Have you ever had that one song get stuck in your head? That one really, _really_ annoying song? You're welcome.**

 _Omake - Welcome to Beacon (a Shrek parody)_

After arriving at Beacon I met a girl named Ruby. She was cute, quirky, and I picked her up from the ground after she exploded. Things were going pretty well, until-

Ruby looked around us with a raised eyebrow. "Do you know where you're going?"

"I was following you," I answered honestly. We spent a moment looking around for any clues, and I spotted a rather large booth with a sign that said 'information.' "Think that could be a map?"

"Only one way to find out." We walked closer to it and examined it: there were two white window panes that were closed, and a comically large lever to the side. Ruby reached over and yanked the lever downwards, and immediately the booth began... ticking. It started slowly, gradually increasing in pace until the ticks were practically happening simultaneously. Ruby and I both brought out our weapons, expecting it to be some type of trap. Then...

...it opened. A parade of dolls were moving back and forth within, all in time to some music that was extremely cheerful in tone. Many of the dolls were wearing what I assumed to be Beacon's uniform, and at the top were two unique dolls: one with white hair and a coffee mug, the other a blonde woman with a paper list in one hand and a riding crop in the other. The most unsettling part, however, was the music itself.

" _Welcome to_ _Beacon,_ _such a perfect_ _school_

 _You'll have a good time if you heed these rules_

 _Go to class, don't be late/_ _and we'll get along_ _great_

 _Beacon_ _is a perfect_ _place_

 _Do your work and don't lie_

 _Fight some Grimm/ Please don't...die (the dolls slumped over to emphasize the line)_

 _Beacon_ _is_ / _Beacon_ _is_

 _Beacon_ _is a perfect_ _place!"_

A bright flash made us jump as the booth closed shut. With a slight _whirr_ sound, a photo print out from below the booth; in it was the two of us, weapons hanging limply at our sides and mouths open wide enough to catch flies. Ruby reached forward and grabbed the photo, eying me with a silent question that I nodded yes to.

 _Rip!_

The picture was torn into two, four, eight uneven pieces. After that, she set them on the ground and shot the collection with her Scythe-rifle. Destroyed beyond recognition, I gathered up the remains and tossed them into the nearest trash can. It was at that moment that we learned of the silent agreement amongst all Beacon alumni:

Ozpin was nuts.

 **Until next time, GG!**


	6. Chapter 6- Grimm of the Wild

**A/N: Thank you all for the many suggestions for game skills. While it would be quite difficult to include some of them, I did get some decent ideas.**

 **This chapter will feature the first perspective that isn't Jaune's.** **The PoV change will be marked** **appropriately; and before people go hopping on me about this, no, this PoV does not confirm or deny any pairings. We'll be switching between many viewpoints as the story progresses.  
**

 **GL; HF!**

X

I checked the time on my scroll as we left the game store: 2:42 PM. We'd made pretty good time on our errands, and I was stuck with the ever vague feeling of 'Now what?'

Ruby was apparently on the same page that I was, because she turned to me and asked, "Hey, Jaune, do you have anything else to do today?"

"Not really." Hitting the gym came to mind, but I didn't feel like doing it right that second.

"Well, I think we should treat ourselves to some ice cream! After that, we should burn off those delicious calories by training. Sound good?"

I gave a chortle as I regarded her sweet tooth. "Ice cream sounds good, but I though you didn't want to train today?"

"I didn't want to do weight training," she clarified flatly. "Yang is one of the strongest people I know, and I kinda don't like comparing how many pounds we can bench press."

"Ah, I can see that. What training did you have in mind then?"

Ruby lifted her new scope up, still in its bag and box, and gave me a cheeky smile. "I wanna test this bad boy out in the designated training area of the Emerald Forest."

I raised an eyebrow. "You want to hunt Grimm?"

"Yeah! We can stay on the edges of the forest so that we don't get in over our heads and, even if we do, the others won't be too far away. What do you think?"

I gave the notion some thought. If I got some EXP by hunting monsters, that'd bring me even closer to where the others were. Plus, since I didn't have to use my skill points right away, I could still grind up my stats the natural way. I suspected that the law of diminishing returns would kick in if I added the points first and tried to grind afterwards.

 _"Why are they called skill points, anyways? They aren't plugged into skills, so wouldn't the more accurate term be stat points?"_ My musings were interrupted by a notification.

 **The System has received an update! "Skill points" have now been renamed as "SP"!**

 _"That's... nice, I guess. Now can you fix the Ermac problem?"_ Nothing else appeared, so I turned my attention back to Ruby and said, "Sounds like a plan to me. Let's go eat some dairy delights."

Little Red led the way to a place called "Sweet Treats and Tasty Eats," which I gave a nod of approval for not using the 'n' that Blossom's store did. It was rather quaint, for lack of a better word. There were cute signs hung on the walls with funny sayings or depictions of smiley faced food. A part of me wondered whether the food would keep smiling once it/they figured out it/they'd be going inside someone's stomach.

There was a small line leading up to the counter, so we took our place and examined the menu. On top of the small list of available ice creams, they had crepes, muffins, pretzels, and chocolate-covered bacon. _"One of these things is not like the others."_

As I stood in line I observed the stats of the people around us. Most of them ranged from level ten to thirty or so, and most of the latter were adults. It made a certain kind of sense to me because, without training to be a soldier or Huntsman, you wouldn't need to be in tip top condition for daily life; one person, however, caught my eye. She was a rather small girl with pink and brown hair split evenly down the middle. Sitting at a table near the counter, she put a bite of mint-chocolate chip ice cream in her mouth and seemed to swoon a little, though I couldn't quite see her face from my angle.

 **Neo Politan**

 **Title: The Mouthy Mute**

 **LV: 61**

I wanted to observe her stats properly, but she must have sensed that she was being stared at; she spun in her chair to examine the crowd, so I quickly looked away and struck up a random conversation with Ruby, who was oblivious to the entire event.

The next twenty or so minutes were pretty fun as Ruby and I chatted about school and our teams. When I told her about JNPR playing SA 2 Battle together, she got excited and explained to me that she and Yang had owned it back in the day... at least until their dog Zwei decided it was a frisbee. She proudly declared that both teams together would work to get all 180 emblems by the end of the semester, to which I could only laugh and agree.

As a side note, she got a strawberry ice cream sundae with peanuts while I ate some neapolitan ice cream. Before you ask the answer is yes, I was inspired by the strange woman; can you blame me, though? She was the highest level person I'd observed to date; it was too bad she left before I got to see her again.

After the final bites had been eaten and the spoons licked clean of any remains we made our way back to the bullhead, ready to take on some Grimm. While Ruby had dressed appropriately for a fight before we left Beacon on our errands (even sneaking her scythe around just below her hood, which baffled me,) I hadn't changed out of the school uniform. Once we made it to Beacon, Ruby went ahead to the cliffs where we'd started initiation, promising that she wouldn't get started without me.

I made my way to the lockers and switched into my combat gear, Crocea Mors resting uncomfortably on my hip. _"How about I don't drop it this time?"_

I quickly realized that I had brought my games with me to the locker room. It was time to make a decision. _"I'm not going to use the Final Fantasy TM yet, because I want to find and compare the skills of the other games. I've played five through ten, plus thirteen, so I know many skills that could be just as nice as cure. Mortal Kombat, by comparison, doesn't have as many skills that I would want to use. Maybe Sub-zero's cryomancy, but I think I can get more use out of the spear."_

I put FF XIII in the locker while simultaneously popping open the MK case.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Scorpion's Spear"?**

"Yes." The disc disappeared on command, flowing into me to grant me power.

 **~Scorpion's Spear LV: MAX (Active) AP cost: 25**

 **One of the signature moves of the Hellspawn Scorpion, the user creates an Aura construct of a knife attached to a length of rope and throws it, reeling the target in if it connects. This skill does minimal damage on contact, but can potentially leave the target stunned and allow a follow-up attack.**

 **Throw range: 30 feet.** **Any target that weighs more than (STR X 3.5) pounds will require two hands to pull towards the user.**

 **Upon connecting with a target, the user's STR is checked against the target's CON. If STR is greater than CON by five points or more, the target is stunned for 3 seconds. If STR is within four points of CON in either direction, the target is stunned for 1 second. If CON is greater than STR by five or more, the target is not stunned and may act throughout the move. Stun time is calculated from the moment of impact.**

 **This skill can not level.**

It was a lot to read all at once, but it was also simple to understand: get buffed up or you'll get roughed up when you use it. Deciding to give it a test run, I flung the now empty case across the room and fired the 'spear' at it mid-flight. My aim held true, and a yank brought the case flying back at me. As it made the return trip I grabbed Crocea Mors and sliced upwards, cutting the container in half like a scene from a budget samurai film.

...but it was _my_ samurai film, so it was inherently more awesome because of it. Picking up the pieces and throwing them away, I walked out of the locker room feeling infinitely badass.

When I caught up to Ruby, she was holding her scythe in its rifle form and peering into the forest. The new scope had been attached, the silver sheen clashing a bit with the mostly red weapon; clearly, she was so pumped to use it that she hadn't bothered to paint the part. "Heya, Ruby. Did I miss anything?"

"A zombie apocalypse happened, but otherwise not much." She giggled at her own joke without looking away from her view. "I went ahead and messaged the others. Some of them might join up with us, but I don't know for certain."

"Roger that. Do you have a target?"

"Yep, two beowolves to our left. It's as good a start as any."

I leaned and peered over the edge of the cliff as I responded. "Sounds great; but, uh... aren't we gonna lose their position as we climb down the cliff?"

Ruby paused as she contemplated her answer, finally looking up from the scope. "Jaune, how much do you weigh?"

"Huh? Uh, 150 without the gear; why?"

"Do you trust me?"

"...The fact that you asked me that worries me, but yes, yes I do."

"Good to hear!" Ruby put her weapon in its place on her back and promptly dashed at me with her Semblance active. Before I could offer a single retort or objection, she picked me up with both hands and princess-carried me as we zoomed almost straight down the sheer wall of stone. Just before we became a smear on the ground she pulled up, correcting our angle and bringing us safely to the ground. I might've screamed if I'd been able to draw a breath; instead I was left speechless until she planted me onto the ground like a flower pot.

I fought to speak between gasps of air. "Ruby, that... was not... cool."

She at least had the decency to look apologetic. "Sorry, but I was scared that if I gave you time to think about it your motion sickness would kick in. I like my cape how it is."

"I get it, but just..." I sighed. By my eyes, Ruby wasn't weaponizing her cuteness as she apologized; and trust me, seven sisters will teach you about when they're playing you. "Tell you what, the next time we go out to eat you can pay-"

Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at me. "Really?!"

"- for my whole team," I finished with a laugh. Ruby's face fell a bit, weighing her conscience against her wallet. The big brother in me wasn't going to let her get away scott free; Yang would understand, right?

After a moment she gave a sigh of her own. "You can be kinda mean, Jaune."

"I'm a older sibling like Yang, so I'm just doing what she would do."

"Oh, really? What's your family like?"

"Well-" I was interrupted when a bush not too far from us rustled. We both armed ourselves and waited for our intruder to appear. After a second or two, a single beowolf walked into the clearing we were in, sniffing the air before looking in our direction. It reared onto its hind legs and gave a howl, obviously making a call for reinforcements.

 **Beowolf**

 **LV: 20**

 **HP: 900/900**

 **STR: 31**

 **DEX: 35**

 **CON: 18**

 **INT: 14**

 **WIS: 12**

 **CHA: 10**

 _"50 HP per point in CON, hmm. This doesn't seem like the time to test the spear, but maybe..."_ I spoke to Ruby without looking away from the Grimm. "Ruby, would you mind backing me up for a second? I want to try something."

"Go ahead, but be careful. I don't want you getting hurt." She pointed the business end of her scythe-rifle at the monster while giving me some space. I gently placed Crocea Mors on the ground while my Aura began gathering in my hand. _-1 sec.-_

The beowolf sized us up, as if it was debating if it could take us on without some buddies. _-2 sec.-_

I wouldn't let it wait for back-up. I took two steps forward and shouted, "I'm waiting, you ugly dog!" _-3 sec.-_

It worked; with another howl it dashed in on all fours, almost drooling at the chance to eat me. _-4 sec.-_

When it got within twenty feet I shot the Hadouken forward, catching the monster right in its face. The beast didn't even have a chance to whimper in pain as its head and upper torso became consumed in my attack, evaporating from existence almost instantly. Its lower legs collapsed to the ground, fading considerably slower than the top. I had to admit that while I loved the effect I'd made...

 **AP: 840 - 590**

...The drain on my Aura was _ridiculous._ _"At least I confirmed how much damage the fully charged version can do."_

 **The skill level of "Hadouken" has increased by 1!**

 **You have unlocked the title "Student of the Hado"!**

 **~Student of the Hado**

 **By defeating a foe with the staple technique of Ryu's master, you have shown a willingness to control your inner self. Continue honing your skills!**

 **10% damage boost to Hadouken, 10% AP cost reduction for Hadouken.**

A part of me wanted to argue that I should've gotten that title when I beat Sky, but I was mostly just grateful that I got it at all. Conscious of my already lowered AP, I decided to stick with my Newbie Hero title for the moment and train my sword and shield style.

 **Your closeness with Ruby has increased by 1!**

It was with a start that I realized Ruby had gotten uncomfortably close, a look of awe in her eyes. "Jaune, I know you said that might be your Semblance, but can you _please_ teach me how to do that?!"

I laughed and pointed at my scroll-watch extension, where my Aura gauge was showing. "With how much Aura that ate up, I'm not sure you would want to use it. See?"

She glanced down and noted the roughly thirty percent drop. "Ah. Yeah, uh... keep it. It's still really cool, though!"

"I'll agree with that." I slowly stopped laughing when I noticed something appear from the disappearing legs of the beowolf. Walking over to it, I picked up the dropped item with an ample amount of confusion.

 **You have obtained 50 Lien!**

Exactly as described, it was a stack of five lien bills tied together with what seemed to be black thread. I ran my fingers across the stack, each bill feeling just as real as- well, real money. In an attempt to solve this new mystery I asked Ruby, "Have you ever seen a Grimm drop money before, Ruby?"

Ruby examined the short stack of cash curiously. "Never. Maybe it... just ate somebody's wallet?"

The absence of an actual wallet anywhere dismissed that idea, leaving my Gamer-minded self with only one possible solution.

 _Loot._

It made sense. My life was a game now, and monsters gave you EXP and loot when you defeated them. Sometimes money, other times it was items, and still other times health orbs; though, clearly, I had no such luck on that last detail.

 _"This easy kill gave me fifty. How much would that huge deathstalker have given me? Oh... Jaune likes. He likes a lot."_ I couldn't prevent a grin from popping up on my face, though I did at least turn my face away from my companion so she didn't think I was acting weird. "Let's forget it, Ruby. Do you think that more beowolves will show up from that howl?"

"Definitely. How do you want to play this?" Her tone slipped into battle-mode quickly, showcasing her experience fighting Grimm despite her young age.

Well, I was going to earn my own experience today.

* **Pyrrha** *

The previous hour and a half spent with Yang had been quite enjoyable. The blonde brawler was always lively, and it kept the workout routine from being monotonous for even a moment.

"I don't know what to tell you, I'm afraid. Ren and Nora seem comfortable enough with each other; but, as Nora herself has said, they don't seem to be 'together-together.'" I spoke easily despite being my exertion as I bench pressed with Yang as my spotter. We were doing low-weight, high-rep sets. "What makes you ask, Yang?"

"Just curious about how you and Jaune would cope if they got a little intimate in the dorm, that's all. How is the little space cadet as a leader, anyways?"

"'Space cadet' isn't quite the right description. Rather than saying Jaune spaces out, I think he tends to overthink things. To answer the question, Jaune's leadership has been pleasant so far. The last two nights he's had our team play some video games together, and I must say that I really enjoyed the one he introduced last night." I finished my set and switched places with Yang. The blonde added fifty pounds to each side of the bar, causing me no small amount of concern for the first person she'll fight in Ms. Goodwitch's class.

Yang started her set as she continued speaking. "What kind of games does he have?"

"We first played a game called street fighter, which was fun but not quite something I'd play on a regular basis, and then yesterday we played 'Sonic Adventure 2' for a while."

"He brought that here? How many emblems does he have on the save file?!" The bar shot into the air and stopped as Yang looked up at me with an expression I could only call ecstatic. Her enthusiasm caught me quite off-guard, and for a moment I wondered if I shouldn't have brought it up.

"Um, at the moment we have five emblems off of the first three stages. It's a new save file, apparently."

"Oh that's not good enough, not _nearly_ good enough! This weekend we're powering through those stages as a joint team effort! I've gotta get my red egg, I don't know what color Ruby will want. We'll also need a grey egg to look like Zwei..." Yang's speech trailed off as she mumbled to herself. I couldn't help but to giggle at her serious expression.

Her muted monologue was interrupted by our scrolls beeping with received messages. I reached over and grabbed both of them while Yang set the bar back up. Opening the scrolls revealed the following group message:

[Hey everyone, this is Ruby. Jaune and I are about to do some Grimm hunting in the Emerald Forest near the cliffs. Everyone's invited.]

Yang gave a snort. "Well somebody's excited about her new scope. I'm not gonna go this time, but what about you P-money?"

I raised an eyebrow at the nickname but didn't comment on it. "I think I will, actually. I want to keep an eye on Jaune's form since it was a little stiff in his fight with Sky."

"Oh?" Yang's lips twisted in a smirk. "And just what part of Jaune's _form_ were you watching in the match?"

I felt my cheeks darken as I coughed into my fist. "I meant that his fighting style could use some work. His stance, you know."

"Uh-huh, I'll pretend that I believe that. You go have fun with your boy toy, just don't do anything too kinky out in the forest. I don't need you corrupting my innocent little Ruby."

"Yang!" The blonde laughed as she walked away, leaving me a blushing mess as I silently prayed nobody else had heard her. As I walked to the women's locker room to get ready, I allowed my thoughts to drift to Jaune. He was nice to basically everybody it seemed, and didn't make a big deal about my fame even after Weiss blew my not-so-great cover of being a normal girl.

Well, as a Huntress-in-training I already wasn't 'normal', but I'd never appreciated how so many people in Mistral had approached me only for my fame and connections. That's why I slipped away to Beacon instead of going to Haven; to start fresh, where nobody would know me. It hadn't worked, sadly, but my fellow teammates in JNPR had completely refrained from putting me on a pedestal and it...

...it was wonderful. I finally had proper friends, and a nice leader.

 _"And just what part of Jaune's form were you watching in the match?"_

Okay, yes, Jaune was cute; but I'd just met him less than a week prior, so it was a little early to say anything more than that I appreciated his skill at making bonds.

Dressed, armed, and ready, I set Milo and Akuo on my back and pulled out my scroll. The school scrolls allowed teams to keep track of their teammates' Aura levels, so I pulled up the little gauge that represented Jaune. It was nice and green, filled all the way to the top-

 _Beep!_

I watched in mild shock as his Aura dropped by almost a third in a heartbeat. It was still green, but just barely. I knew in my head that he was probably fine with Ruby there as well, but my heart sank at the thought of him being injured.

 _"I need to find them ASAP!_ I bolted through the hallways of the school, making my way to the cliffs in under five minutes. As I looked over the cliffside my trained ears picked up the sound of Ruby's rifle coming from my left. My descent down the wall wasn't graceful, but it was efficient; I jumped from platform to platform, using my Semblance on myself to make minor adjustments as I fell.

Once I hit the ground I immediately brought out my gear and shot like a bullet towards the sounds of battle. Within a minute I came upon a clearing where a small cluster of beowolves were attacking or circling around Jaune, who had his shield up, while Ruby fired shot after shot at the Grimm; it was a standard formation since only he had a shield. Jaune would attack any that got close, but his swings were often too wide and took too long; the beowolves would manage to retreat just out of range, leaving Ruby to do most of the damage to them.

Slowly but surely five beowolves became two: two downed by rifle, and one of the Grimm that got too aggressive found its neck cut off by Crocea Mors. The last two Grimm made as if to attack Jaune, but at the last moment dove around him and charged at Ruby. Crescent Rose severed the torso of one of them, but the other got its claws ever so close to the petite girl before something... bizarre happened.

The monster was suddenly yanked backwards as Jaune pulled on a strange cord that I only identified as rope in hindsight. The rope seemed to end inside of the beast's back, and when it finished its backwards-facing flight towards Jaune it landed on its back in a daze. My leader then grabbed his sword from the ground and stabbed it into the Grimm's heart, ending its life in no uncertain terms.

The battle now over, I walked over to them and heard Jaune mumble something about the monster having low constitution as the rope faded into nothing. I ignored it, more concerned with checking up on them. "Jaune, Ruby, are you two okay?"

Ruby piped up as she put her scythe away, "All good. Thanks for the save there, Jaune."

"No problem," he answered as he sheathed his own weapon. "It's good to see you, Pyrrha, and I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" I couldn't keep the doubt from my voice. "You took a pretty hard hit to your Aura. I saw it when it happened."

"I did? Oh, oh, you saw me using that fireball attack. It turns out I can charge it up, but it tears through my AP- I mean, Aura. Neither of us got hit, promise." He spun in a circle as if to showcase his lack of battle wounds. "Sorry if I freaked you out."

I let myself smile as relief washed over me, closing the gap between us until I was a few feet from him. "It's okay as long as you're safe. Is there-"

I stopped as I stepped on something that definitely was _not_ dirt. Looking at the ground, I saw a short stack of lien sitting right where the last Grimm had died. "Why is there money here?"

"The beowolves are Lien piñatas today." Ruby walked around the clearing and picked up a few similar sets of bills. "I don't know why, but I'm not complaining; after all, I apparently owe JNPR ice cream."

The hooded girl shot a tongue out at Jaune, who only smiled and shrugged. "I guess the treats will be on the Grimm this weekend. Well, I'm still able to train if you are, Ruby."

"Yep! Are you joining us, Pyrrha?"

I smiled as I answered with, "If you'll have me, then gladly. Let's be careful as we proceed." We spent the next hour hunting beowolves near the cliff, only returning to Beacon when it seemed we had emptied the local spot of any Grimm. It was fun working with them, although I couldn't figure out why the slain monsters were dropping Lien left and right.

As the day came to a close, I once again felt happy with my new bonds. I'd be happy at Beacon, I just knew it.

X

 **For the curious, the damage for the Hadouken is multipled on a simple math scale. One second is times two, four seconds is times five, and everything in between.**

 **In sad news for some, I have officially given Tales of Neopolitan the abandonment boot. There may be a rewrite, but it depends a bit on RWBY Canon. I didn't like how I was portraying Neo, particularly with how she communicated. Thank you to all who showed me your support for my first published story.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and wish you a nice day!**

 **For now, GG!**


	7. Chapter 7- Progress

**A/N: I would like to bring attention to the Scorpion's spear skill from the last chapter. Under the advice of MysticSpider (props), I've edited the description regarding the weight of the targets.**

 **On a different note, we now have over 600 followers holy _shit._ Like... how?! Thank you all so much for tuning in, but I swear the pressure's gonna kill me!**

 **...In a good way** **! I think. Omake after the endnotes.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

The time I spent hunting with Pyrrha and Ruby turned out to be _quite_ the valuable experience. I only gained one true level (bringing me up to unlucky thirteen) but the session gave me some other benefits.

First, Observe leveled up to three; with that came the boon of knowing the target's status (such as knowing if they're bleeding out, poisoned, unconscious. etc.) and their current emotional state. I was slightly disappointed to learn that all of the beowolves had "murderous" as their go-to emotion, but all things considered it'll make understanding people a bit easier for me; not that I've ever had major issues with that... aside from women, but it'll be a much simpler task to call out anybody who's trying to lie or bluff me. I decided that I needed to play poker at some point to test that particular function.

Second, and more useful in combat, was coming to understand how "Sense Intent" works. You see, if I have my attention focused on someone and they're focused on me in return, the skill won't give me a notification because I'll already know about it. However, if an enemy within range shifts their focus from somebody else to me it'll activate, almost as if to say "Okay, they aren't stuck staring at Ruby anymore. Pay attention." The skill also keeps constant track of the enemies focusing on me within my range; granted it was only fifteen feet at the moment, but once it leveled up the range would increase and I would never be snuck up on again.

Unless they had a sniper rifle like Ruby. In that case... GG, I guess. Shield Proficiency also went up to three, while Sword Proficiency is now *just* below level two. That had me a little frustrated, to be sure.

Last, but not least, I now knew the rules of the loot drops. I didn't need to hurt the enemy to prompt the drop, but I did have to engage them. Whether that was swinging at them or dodging an attack aimed at me, it didn't matter what. The amount of money varied by the both level of the monster and some unknown random number generator; two same-leveled beowolves wouldn't always drop the same value of Lien. They also sometimes dropped the item "Beowolf tooth," though my friends hadn't noticed them drop. I stored them in my inventory; which, I'm happy to report, allowed me to put them all in the same slot instead of each tooth taking one up.

By the end of the day, and with a grand total of sixteen beowolves killed, we made 670 Lien. We split it three ways (with Ruby taking the extra one Lien) and made our way back in. I'll admit that I was worried about the loot alarming everybody, but-

"Look, Ruby, the three of you can quit trying to prank us. Grimm don't drop money." Weiss's dismissal was blunt at this point, tired of her partner's constant pressure. "If a Grimm eats somebody, everything they have on them is lost. Period"

My fear didn't quite come to pass, thank goodness. Ruby had decided to share the money-making info with our teams, but the only person who even remotely believed us was Nora. You'd think that they would believe Pyrrha of all people, but our friends seemed convinced that Ruby had hatched up some prank and convinced us to play along. To be fair, I wasn't trying very hard to be convincing, so the end result was that the two redheads gave up trying by the time dinner was over.

We of JNPR returned to our dorm room and mutually agreed to do Oobleck's required reading early since there would be a quiz on Friday. I did the best I could to focus, but after thirty minutes I dropped my book in frustration. It wasn't history's fault I was distracted; rather, my mind was occupied by my lackluster performance. _"The skills I'm picking up from the games are great, but... I still can't use Crocea Mors properly. I can't even blame it on my low DEX! I... I need to train. Somehow."_

I cast my eyes around the room. Ren was writing some notes down, Nora was balancing her book on her nose by its spine (an impressive feat, I'll admit), and Pyrrha was studiously flipping pages as she read. _"Nora is raw power and I don't plan on using a hammer, so that route's out. Ren could teach me how to fight hand-to-hand in case I wind up unarmed again. Yeah, I'll ask him for that in a minute. Pyrrha..."_

I frowned as I contemplated everything that she was. The spartan was a _four-time_ tournament champion, with the skills to back up that title. Asking her to teach me the very basics of swordsmanship, especially after she'd already helped me out by unlocking my Aura...

 _"It just doesn't feel right._ _I can't rely on her for everything, even if she is my partner."_

"Ren, quick question." My voice brought the ninja out of his studying as he looked up to acknowledge me. "Nora told us about you taking out a giant snake in initiation with only your palms. Is that something you'd be willing to teach me?"

Ren thought for a moment before answering. "I wouldn't be against it, but that level of Aura control isn't something that can be taught in a day. How much experience do you have manipulating your Aura in combat?"

I realized a moment too late that I'd set myself a trap, and sprung it, in regards to my less-than-honest admission; I'd been referring to his fighting style, but he took it to mean his Aura control. Sadly it was too late to avoid the topic, so I silently gulped and swallowed my pride. "...The last few days," I answered honestly. "To tell you the truth, Pyrrha unlocked it during initiation. I've been experimenting with it just a little, but I want some honest training. Can you help me?"

 **Your closeness with Pyrrha and Ren have increased by 1!**

Honesty is the best policy? Ren nodded slowly and said, "I'm curious about your circumstances; however, I would never withhold aid from a teammate who needs it. When would you like to start?"

Pyrrha chimed in, "I think it's wonderful that you're striving to improve. Would you mind if I sat in on your training session? I'm sure I could learn a thing or two as well."

Relief washed over me as I took in the fact that they weren't judging me for my apparent (and real) ineptitude. I felt grateful, not for the first time, that I had the chance to meet great people like these three and team RWBY. I decided that if I ever saw that Torchwick guy again, I'd make sure to give him a tip and a thank you for getting me into Beacon. "We'll probably be pretty tired after Ms. Goodwitch's class tomorrow, so how about we start Friday after classes? And yes, Pyrrha, it'd be great to have you there, too."

Nora threw her hands into the air in glee. "JNPR's first team training session! This is going to be awesome!"

The rest of us laughed and began chatting about this, that, and the other. My heart felt lighter, content that I now had a better opportunity to catch up to my peers.

Some time passed and my cohorts eventually went to sleep. I waited for the sounds of their slumber before grabbing my scroll and a very special case from the floor. Sneaking out in a white t-shirt and jeans, I quickly made my way outside of the building. I made sure to move further from the dorms than I did two nights prior; I was going to be making a lot of noise, and the last thing I needed to do was start more rumors around Beacon.

I eventually found a bench halfway between the school and the airship docks and plopped myself onto it. I set the case on my lap and opened it, bringing out the treasure within...

...It was my guitar, of course. I had all night to spend how I wanted, and my heart was set on boosting my singing to where it _should've_ been all along. _"Making me start with only a level one in singing when my guitar was at_ _ **twenty-two?!** Kiss my ass, I'm catching this thing up!"_

What followed was two hours of me singing along with several "How to get better at singing" videos on Blutube, and another four hours jamming along to songs that were being played through the radio function on the scroll. In many ways it was embarrassing, but I was Capital-D Determined to get my skills up to snuff. Most of it was due to my pride, though there was a small part of me that always wanted to be able to sweep women off of their feet with my songs.

 **The skill level of "Singing" has increased by 1! The skill level of "Singing" has increased by 1! The skill level of "Singing" has increased by 1! The skill level of "Singing" has increased by** **1!**

 **Your diligent studying has improved your INT by 1!**

Much better.

After a soulful rendition of "Love me Tender", I was freed from my self-inflicted torture- I mean, training. My scroll noted the time as 5:30, so I made my way back to the dorm room as quickly and stealthily as I could. Swiping my scroll across the door lock, I tiptoed across the floor, set my guitar case right by my bed, and slipped into said bed with the intention of simply resting for a while. When my head hit the pillow I was met with not the softness of feathers, but the hard shell of something cold and metallic.

"Ow!" The temporary pain was enough to elicit a grunt from me, so I peeked around to make sure I hadn't woken anybody up. Seeing that the coast was clear, I grabbed the offending object from behind me and brought it into my sight.

It was Nora's hammer, in its smaller grenade launcher form.

"So where've you been?"

The sound of Nora right beside my ear made me jump, but I managed to avoid any additional noises slipping out of my mouth. The ginger had somehow snuck up on me in the few seconds that I'd been distracted and was now dishing out one hell of a grin; the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland would've been proud of it. Her voice was a whisper as she spoke. "You know, fearless leader, there is next to nothing that goes past Nora Valkyrie's attention unchecked. You've been out all night, and I demand to know what you've been doing!"

As my Gamer's mind kicked in, I decided to tell most of the truth. Whispering back, I answered, "I couldn't sleep, so I left with my guitar and played some songs for a while. How- scratch that, when did you notice I was gone?"

Nora's grin somehow got wider. "Around midnight; but playing your guitar, huh? You wouldn't happen to be serenading some young maiden, would you? How very _naughty_ of you to do that so early in the school year."

"Wh- No! Nothing like that, I was by myself the entire time! You don't actually think I'd do stuff like that, do you?!"

"Hmm, the verdict's still out on that." She gave a quiet laugh before letting her smile and teasing drop. "Jaune, Pyrrha's your partner, right?"

"Of course she is, but what does-" I was interrupted by a finger being pressed to my lips.

"I only knew you were gone because _she_ was fretting over where you were. I stopped Pyrrha from bugging you over your scroll and promised her I'd keep an eye out for you. Pyrrha was really concerned, alright? So don't go disappearing for long periods of time with no explanation; it's bad for both of you."

 **Nora Valkyrie**

 **Status: Fatigued (Light sleep deprivation)**

 **Emotion(s): Concern**

Guilt pooled in my stomach as Nora gently chided me. I was once again reminded of the fact that I was both a team leader and a partner, and as such I had a responsibility to keep things together. Going AWOL would hurt us collectively. "Sorry. I'll make it up to you guys, I promise."

 **By reaching** **a better understanding of your position, your WIS has increased by 1!**

"Just apologize to Pyrrha and don't do it again. Although," Nora tilted her head in thought. "How good are you at making pancakes?"

Two hours later, I was serving apology pancakes to my team in the student lounge; or, at least, that's how it should've been. Instead, I somehow wound up making food for JNPR _and_ RWBY because somebody named Nora tipped them off about the pancake and eggs breakfast. I wanted to glare at her, but I was honestly having way too much fun chatting with my friends as I cooked and the time flew by. By the time I got around to making my own portion, everybody else had finished (or nearly finished) their food and sat around in various levels of food coma.

 **Your closeness with Ruby/Yang/Blake/Weiss/Pyrrha/Ren/Nora have increased by 1!**

Nora let out what must've been the second best belch in the history of humanity and proclaimed, "I still say you lose to my Rennie, Jaune, but all-in-all that was some good food."

"I have to agree," followed Weiss as she wiped away the food on her lips a napkin. "Did you cook for your family a lot while you were growing up?"

"The chores were rotated between the kids, so all of us got some level of house training." I chuckled and took a bite of my eggs. I was savoring the moment because the most infamous fact about my family was coming up, and I always got a kick out of people's reactions when I tell them. "Being the only son in eight children, I sometimes feel like I was groomed to be a house husband."

 _"Three, two, one..."_

Ruby's plate clattered as she quickly pushed herself to her feet in shock. "You have seven sisters?!"

"Eee-yup." I dragged out the word as mouths around the table fell open. "Two older, five younger."

"I can barely stand Yang sometimes! Oh you poor, poor child."

Pyrrha spoke up while Yang gave her sister a dope slap. "Did you have relatives nearby that helped raise you, or was it just your parents and the troop?"

"The latter. Both of my parents are Huntsmen, but my mom retired after I was born to be a housewife. I have aunts and uncles, but they all live in Mistral. As one of the oldest children I spent most of my time babysitting, so I received a lot of experience in the domestic side of life."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "'Domestic' meaning...?"

"Cooking, cleaning, sewing, and, horror of horrors, shopping. Apparently, guys are only allowed to use the phrase 'it looks good' so many times before they're forced to actually understand women's fashion." It wasn't one of my prouder moments, hours spent poring through magazines and blogs to attain even a sliver of understanding in the ways of outfit coordination. This coming from me, who swears by my Pumpkin Pete hoodie.

An alarm that I'd set on my scroll went off. "We might want to get rolling to class now, guys. Feel free to interrogate me later."

The rest of Thursday passed without incident. I didn't spar that day in Goodwitch's class; however I did gain another INT point in Professor Peach's, so it wasn't a wasted day by any means. Friday's first class, Grimm Studies with Port, gave me a bit of a surprise.

 **Peter Port**

 **LV: 60**

 **Title: The Boisterous Blunderbuss**

Over the week I had maintained my attitude of 'Observing' anything and everything (which was probably why it was already at level three), but this was the first time that any of the teachers actually showed anything besides their name. It only took me a few moments to figure out that what had changed was myself; or, rather, my level.

 _"When I first observed him I was only eight, but now I'm level thirteen. That means that my 'Observe' can only examine people up to fifty levels or so above my own."_ The funny part was that that information was both comforting and concerning. Comforting in that I had a better understanding of my skill, concerning in that any person or Grimm with question marks were the equivalent of raid bosses. Beings that I could _not_ afford to face on my own.

Of course, I couldn't help but snicker at the thought of one of the students managing to take the portly teacher in a fight. My fight with Sky had shown me that level differences could be overcome, so even somebody from RWBY or JNPR could take on the mighty Huntsman who boasted of wrestling with an Ursa.

After sitting through Grimm Studies and getting a less than average score on Oobleck's quiz, it was finally time for the training session. By Ren's suggestion, JNPR gathered outside of the school about a third of the way to the cliffs. We all brought our combat gear, just in case we felt like getting a spar in before dinner.

Ren stood about ten feet in front of me while Pyrrha and Nora stayed a bit to one side, content with watching us for a while. Knowing that we were going to be doing something akin to meditating, I was tempted to sit in the classic lotus position you see in all of those Mistral live-action films; but Ren stopped me, saying that I should practice in the manner I'll actually be using my Aura (while standing, basically) and that my legs would eventually give out if I crossed them like that for too long.

Seeing that I was ready, Ren said, "First, let's establish how you've done things so far. When you throw one of those fireball attacks, what do you feel?"

It wasn't too difficult a question. "I feel my energy, my Aura, gather at the palms of my hands. When I'm ready to fire it, I put one or both of my hands forward and shoot it."

"Do you have to think about what the attack will look like before you fire it?"

"Kinda, yeah." I had to think 'hadouken' to use it, so it was the truth.

"Okay then. What I want you to do is use that attack right now and feel out every aspect of how your energy flows. Afterwards, we'll use that feeling and turn it inward."

Obeying his command, I closed my eyes to block out unnecessary intrusions and began charging the hadouken. The sensation of Aura gathering in my palms appeared as per usual, but I focused my mind on where the energy was coming from. After a second or two I realized that I could feel my Aura not just in my hands, but swirling all throughout my body. It was warm, as if sunlight was gently rolling over me from every which way. _"If this is supposed to be the manifestation of my soul, I must say it feels pretty nice."_

 _-4 sec.-_

I noted that my attack had finished charging but didn't automatically fire from my hands; meaning, I could charge it up before a fight even starts and just hold it until I was ready. Ren was expecting an attack, so I put my hands together and aimed it at a nearby tree. The charged hadouken roared through the air and struck the trunk, causing it to explode rather violently; chunks of wood went flying everywhere, though, blissfully, none of them came at us directly. The remains of the tree, the section above the spot the hadouken hit, fell into the forest away from us.

Once my devastation was wrought, I took a moment to admire my work. A part of me wanted to be proud of it, but I remembered that I was surrounded by students who could that level of damage with just their hands and kept my ego in check. "Alright, what now, Ren?"

"Now to repurpose the feeling of your Aura flowing through you. Something like precise Aura-enhanced attacks may be beyond you at first, so for now focus on enhancing your jump height. You've seen the others do superhuman jumps, correct?"

Indeed I had, with the acrobatics from initiation springing to mind first and foremost. Nodding to show I understood, I did a few hops to get a feel for my standard jump height, which was nothing special. Then, I did as I was instructed and focused on my Aura.

I quickly felt a difference from a moment ago. Before, my Aura had been rolling around me in waves as it flowed towards my palms. Since I was no longer charging any attacks it instead felt calm and stable, like the undisturbed surface of a lake. _Go to my feet,_ I instructed.

It resisted and remained still, and a part of me knew it was because I didn't have a proper image in my mind like I did with the hadouken. _"When I used the TM, the Game handed me the knowledge on a silver platter; however, it wasn't an in-depth strategy guide. It was for that one thing only, like when a friend tells you where to find some awesome weapon or spell in a game without telling you how it should actually be used."_

Any gamer knows that any improvement in your skills requires work, repetition, and trial-and-error. Lose to that one RPG boss? Load your save and try a new strategy. Drop that one important combo string? Hit the training mode and do it over and over until it's an automatic motion. Life was similar, just with even more complex controls and no save files. With all that in mind, I made my resolution and got down to work.

I spent the next thirty minutes doing nothing but trying to manipulate my Aura and jumping around like a rabbit to enforce my mental image. When Nora inevitably got bored I told them all to go on ahead, though Pyrrha made me promise not to skip dinner. It was a frustrating process, but I used my emotions to spur myself on.

Ten minutes passed just like that.

 _Smack!_

I picked myself up from my latest attempt, spitting out the dirt in my mouth. I'd felt something different and got a little too excited when I jumped, resulting in a missed landing. _"One more time, I've got this."_

I moved the Aura in me as if it were physically in my hands, coaxing it down towards the balls of my feet. Sensing it shift by my will, I poured in as much Aura as I could manage and jumped.

 **Through a special action, you have learned the skill "Aura Control"!**

 **~Aura Control (Passive) LV: MAX.**

 **Any capable Huntsman must be able to use their tools in a variety of ways, and your Aura is one of those tools.**

 **This skill allows the user to enhance or alter many actions or abilities that are at their disposal. The ease of use and Aura efficiency depends on the user's INT, the difficulty of the action or skill being modified, and (if relevant) the level of the skill. Some actions cannot not be modified or enhanced.**

 **Your perseverance in the face of difficulty has increased your CHA by 1!**

I felt quite a bit of satisfaction as I jumped nearly double my usual height. Landing with a loud thud, I looked at my status and determined that the jump had consumed roughly twenty-five AP; it was a little difficult to tell since my Aura constantly, if slowly, regenerated. Another double height jump confirmed the cost. _"A simple jump eats up that much, so Ren was right to say that a proper punch would be difficult to manage. I probably **could** do it, it would just tear through my Aura."_

Content with my progress, I made my to the cafeteria. I had an empty weekend to look forward to save for one itty bitty, teeny, tiny but ever so important thing to figure out: **Charisma.**

X

 **A short chapter I know, but it's an important one. Jaune sees that his actions affect his team, and he gets a better grasp of the Game... at least, a little better. It also sets up the next chapter to answer the age old question of "Lol wtf is CHA, Panda?"**

 **To all of the ripper mode requests, all I have to say is wait and see.**

 **The "Dating Difficulties" omake series introduced below won't be included with any regularity or guaranteed length, nor are they canon to this story in any way. Just sit back and enjoy a trolling multiple choice system.**

X

 _Omake: Dating Difficulties_ _(Part One)_

 **The System has received an update! New menu option added: Route list.**

I woke up one morning to see this notification floating over my head. I'd just had a peculiar dream where I was back at my school from before Beacon, but all of my conversations were chosen by dating sim-like text choices. I supposed the Game was affected by my subconscious.

Bringing up the new selection, a list appeared in front of me.

 **You have multiple options for romantic partners in your life. As you progress through the Game, think about which 'ending' you'd like to achieve.**

 **Sorted by Difficulty:**

 **Pyrrha Route (Easy)**

 **Ruby Route (Easy)**

 **Velvet Route (Moderate)**

 **Yang Route (Moderate)**

 **Blake Route (Hard)**

 **Neo Route (Hard)**

 **Weiss Route (Hard)**

 **Cinder Route (Very Hard)**

 **Harem Route (Very Hard)**

 **Salem Route (Nightmare)**

 **Nora Route (Impossible)**

I was stunned by the selection in front of me. _"That Neo girl from the dessert place is an option? Huh... More importantly, who the heck are Cinder and Salem? And why the hell is Nora the single most difficult heroine?!"_

When a scroll alarm started going off, I looked to the offending device and saw Pyrrha getting up from her bed. She was wearing a red night gown that was ju~ust transparent enough for me to see a black lace bra underneath. Some would think that waking up to this sight almost every day would dull your perception of it. Well, I'm here to call bullshit on that! _"Down little Jaune, down!"_

Pyrrha, completely unaware of my struggles, shut off her alarm and gave me a refreshed looking smile. "Good morning, Jaune."

"Morning, Pyrrha. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I truly did. Do you mind if I go ahead into the shower?" She rose from the bed completely, and it was a true struggle to refrain from checking out the bottom end of her wardrobe.

"Be my guest." I smiled as I held my pillow in front of mini-me, content to let her go about her day. Pyrrha turned and started walking to her clothes drawers...

And then time stopped.

I didn't notice at first; to me, it just appeared that she had taken a moment to think about something. Several seconds passed before I realized that she'd stopped _completely;_ there was no blinking, breathing, or any other B words that mattered. I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but as I did so a prompt appeared.

 **1\. (Call out to Pyrrha)**

 **2\. (Remain silent)**

 _"Oh no. Have I played so many Dating Sims the Game is now offering me multiple choice options for the everything? Geez. Well, option one, I guess."_ As soon as I decided, I felt time resume and words began spilling out of my mouth with no conscious effort of my own. "Pyrrha, can I ask you a question?"

She got some things from her drawer as she answered, "Of course, what is it?" Time stopped once more, resulting in me getting a nice view of her backside while another prompt appeared.

 **1\. Are all of your underwear lace? 'Cause Jaune likes!**

 **2\. Would you go somewhere with me this Saturday?**

 **3\. That Weiss sure is a beauty, isn't she?**

Naturally, I was a bit flustered. _"What kind of choices are these? One is just straight-up perving on her! Two seems normal enough, while three is also normal but... strange to bring up first thing in the morning. I pick two."_

My mouth was again taken from me as I asked her, "Would you go somewhere with me this Saturday? I wanted to check out the movies and, well, was hoping that you'd go with me."

Pyrrha stopped what she was doing and turned to face me, a light flush of color rising on her face. "You're... asking me on a date?"

 _"I'm asking her on a date?"_ Apparently I was, because my newfound auto mode continued its dialogue. "Yeah, if you'll have me."

 **Your closeness with Pyrrha has increased by 5!**

As soon as the word 'me' was spoken I felt control of my body return to me, the Game (or God, I didn't even know at this point) seemingly done with micromanaging me. Pyrrha held her school uniform in front of her as she stammered out, "T-This is so sudden! However, I must say that I'm... _quite_ looking forward to spending some time with you this weekend. Let's discuss the details later, okay?"

"Uh, sure thing. I actually showered last night, so I'm just gonna head to breakfast now. Later!" Both of us now red in the face, she went to shower and I got ready for the day. Ren and Nora were both down for the count; but, knowing the latter's track record for waking up early and almost immediately dragging along the former, I wasn't too concerned.

Stepping outside of the dorm room, I turned my body in the direction of the cafeteria. I phrase it like that because that was all I accomplished before time froze _again._ _"Are you kidding me?! I'm happy about getting a date with a great girl like Pyrrha, but this is gonna be the most tedious day ever if everything I do is decided by freaking multiple choice!"_

 **1\. (Walk to the library.)**

 **2\. (Walk to the gym.)**

 **3\. (Walk to the cafeteria kitchen.)**

You read that right: not the cafeteria, it specifically said the kitchen. _"I'm gonna wind up cooking something if I pick three, aren't I? I don't feel like making food for the entire student body, so let's go to the library."_

 **The Nora Route has been locked!**

"Wha-?" I didn't even have time to process the notification before my feet whisked me away to my new destination. Little did I know that the chaos that was my life would soon hit the limit of insanity and surpass it.

X

 **I hope you enjoyed it.**

 **For now, GG!**


	8. Chapter 8- Definition

**A/N:** **It is my honor to announce that this story now has a permanent Beta: Exhalted Nation! I've been bouncing ideas off of him and he has given me great advice. Note: he isn't a grammar/spelling beta, so any mistakes of that nature are mine and mine alone.**

B/N: Exalt here, you may not know me yet so let me introduce myself. I am not a RWBY writer yet, although I have written a few ideas along with a first chapter and I even have a few one-shots planned but they aren't finished yet. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this fic and have a good day.

 ** _There is a forum contest opened for this story!_ Details in the end notes.**

 **On a side note, I've altered the tags from humor to romance. There will still be a large focus on humor, of course, but it seemed appropriate. Now** **, I have a question for you all...**

 **Have I ever told you the definition of insani- I mean, Charisma?**

 **GL; HF!**

X

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Newbie Hero**

 **LV: 13 EXP: 65.6%**

 **HP: 630/630**

 **AP: 840/840**

 **STR: 19**

 **DEX: 12**

 **CON: 21**

 **INT: 15**

 **WIS: 16**

 **CHA: 26 (2)**

 **SP: 11**

I mulled over my stats as I walked through the halls of Beacon after dinner. I wasn't upset with my current spread since I'd made some progress without relying on my SP, but sooner or later I was going to have to decide on how I wanted to specialize. Do I go jack-of-all-trades or focus on one or two stats? Do I pick up skills first and use those as a basis, or grind stats and settle on the appropriate skills later? These are the questions that keep gamers up at night, folks.

Eventually, my feet led the way to my destination: the library. I had decided today was the day to do some research, so I walked over to an unused computer and plugged my headphones in. I technically could have done all of this on my scroll, but using a proper keyboard and mouse set-up made everything go much faster for me.

I also understood that I could look up the definition of 'Charisma' in a physical dictionary, but didn't really feel like doing that. Kids these days, right?

[cha·ris·ma /kəˈrizmə/ noun

1\. compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others: "she enchanted guests with her charisma"

2\. a divinely conferred power or talent.]

I discovered that my glares cannot, in fact, change the words printed on a page. _"So... it's how handsome I am? That doesn't sound right at all. Ignoring the 'divine power' bit, I find it pretty difficult to believe that the Game could magically make me more attractive. I'll just have to ask somebody and get an opinion._

Deciding to move along in my research, I typed "Metal Gear Rising Ripper mode" into a Blutube search bar, eventually finding the appropriate let's play video to watch. What followed made me more than a little concerned.

The main character, a cyborg/ninja named Raiden, was originally on the losing end of a soul-piercing speech from a guy named Sam. Raiden's body was soon engulfed in a blood-red aura, causing him to go from relatively unstable to batshit crazy in a heartbeat. After a short speech and shouting "It's time for Jack... to LET 'ER RIP!", he proceeded to metaphorically (and almost literally) hand his foe his own head as his blade began slicing Monsoon apart with ludicrous speed and power.

As a gamer you get used to the fake violence on the screen, and after initiation I know as well as the rest of my friends that games don't do real fighting any justice. What struck me was that the 'Ripper Mode' Raiden was the personification of bloodlust and aggression...

...and the Game had offered for _me_ to become the same way. If my friends saw me transform into some... angry monster, what would they do? Would they be willing to put their faith in me as their leader if winning a battle required surrendering to that level of anger? A lightbulb went off in my head, and I leaned back in my seat as I stopped the video from playing any further.

 _"The Gamer's Mind skill says it negates anything that would affect my mind, and I have proof of that after it helped me overcome my motion sickness... Maybe I could reap the benefits of the Ripper skill without losing my marbles?"_

I shook my head. _"It sounds a little too good to be true; but, if the rest of the franchise doesn't offer any decent skills, I might be able to pick it up and experiment with it in a controlled setting. There are training dummies available for the students, so I could just use Ripper against one or two of those. If I do end up losing my mind, then I just never use it again. Nothing says I have to use every skill in my possession."_

A hand clasped my shoulder, snapping me out of my trance. Tracing the arm back to its owner, I took off my headphones and said, "Hey, Blake. What's up?"

Her yellow eyes were in their default stoic setting. "Nothing, really, but you should probably stop making so much noise with the chair. You're making the others a little angry."

"Huh?" I was surprised to realize that, at some point, I had begun rocking back and forth in my chair; it was wooden, so all I had accomplished was making a lot of squeaking noises. The other folks in the library were glaring at me something fierce, so I immediately stopped my motion and apologized to everyone near me.

I turned back to Blake once I was finished. "Thanks for stopping me there, I would've hated being thrown out for something stupid like that."

"It was for my ears as much as theirs. Did you know you mumble when you're wrapped inside of your own head?"

Crap. "It seems to have become a bad habit since I enrolled here. Did I say anything... coherent?"

"Just something about motion sickness and marbles." A smirk slid onto Blake's face. "I recommend not playing a game of marbles on a bullhead, by the way. Might be a little difficult."

"I'd just call it Hard mode," I said with a sigh of relief. Blake made her way to a nearby table, so I closed out the webpage and followed her. For lack of a better conversation topic, I asked her, "Are you reading anything fun today, or studying for classes?"

"The former." She sat down and grabbed the only book that was there. It had a navy blue book cover on, so I couldn't see what the title was. Blake popped it open to her bookmark, but seemed to pause as she thought of something. "Have you started reading the book you borrowed from the library?"

"'The Great Hunt? Not only did I start, I finished reading it on the first night." I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment as I sat to her right around the small table. "I got so wrapped up in it that by the time I was done, it was practically dawn. No sleep."

 **Your closeness with Blake has increased by 2!**

Blake gave a small but genuine smile as she nodded in response. "I'm happy to see that I'm not the only person who enjoys books on our teams."

I expected her to continue speaking, but instead she brought the book up and disappeared from the conversation. _"Guess we're done talking now. I wonder what she's reading all the time? I would hate to disturb her just to ask- Wait, I can 'observe' things! Duh, Jaune."_

 **~Book Cover**

 **This high quality blue fabric both protects the outside of any book and hides its contents from others. Why are you being so nosy? Rude.**

 _"Di- Did the Game just snark at me?!"_ I felt like I'd been slapped hard enough to give me whiplash. Never before had the Game directly admonished me for something I did. Wanting to see if it would happen again, I decided to Observe the reader herself.

 **Blake Belladonna**

 **Status: Normal**

 **Emotion(s): Excited**

Her stats were exactly the same as before, and I was reminded of the fact that she was a Faunus. I gave her a physical look over, trying to figure out what animal part she had. _"She doesn't have a tail. I've heard of some Faunus having claws, so they could be hidden and no one would ever-"_

Blake's bow twitched. The motion caught me off guard because the rest of her head hadn't moved at all. Focusing my attention on it, I examined every angle of it without moving from my seat. If Blake saw me do it she refrained from commenting, leaving me free to discern that the unique shape of the bow was hiding-

"Cat ears..." The words escaped my lips without thought.

 **Your closeness with Blake has decreased by 2!**

 **You sense harmful intent!**

Blake's head came up ever so slowly until she was looking me square in the eyes. Her golden pearls were reduced to slits as her voice rumbled, "Care to say that again... _Jaune?_ "

I really needed to learn how to keep my comments to myself.

In a flash, she grabbed my left arm and basically ripped me from my seat, dragging me to a much more secluded section of the library. Apparently satisfied that we were away from prying ears, she slammed me into the wall-slash-bookcase. One of the loose books popped out and thunked me on the head, but neither I nor Blake paid it any mind. Her voice was practically a low growl. "How did you find out? Were you sent to discover my location?!"

"Blake, what are you talking about?!"

 **Your closeness with Blake has decreased by 2!**

Her face got even closer to mine as she shoved her arm into my neck. A part of me wanted to appreciate her beauty, but-

 **The System has received an update! New H.U.D. feature: Oxygen gauge!**

-I was slowly losing air. It didn't matter that she couldn't cause physical damage to me, because most videogame characters had some level of susceptibility to drowning or being choked out. I was no different, and was forced to grab the offending arm with both hands just to give my throat enough room to breathe safely. "Blake..."

"Wrong answer." She wasn't raising her voice above a whisper, but her anger was prevalent just the same. "How. Did you. Find out?"

"I saw your bow twitch and noticed the shape. That's all that happened, I swear!" I made sure to keep my voice low, too, just in case Blake decided my volume was an offense.

"You swear?"

"To Monty himself! Please!" Blake let off of my airway, but didn't quite release me all the way. I took it as a win, taking a few deep breathes to get the oxygen flowing. When the blue bar in the corner of my vision filled up all the way it disappeared from sight, its job complete. Thank God.

 **Blake Belladonna**

 **Emotion(s): Fearful, On edge.**

The next thing I knew, Blake was almost hyperventilating. Her face was still close to mine, so I felt every heavy breath as her mouth began running. "Okay, okay, you aren't part of them. I mean, you're human, so it should've been obvious-"

"Blake."

She ignored me. "-how many people have figured it out, though? This bow isn't enough, I-I-I've got to find a good hat or something-"

"BLAKE!" My sheer volume shook her out of her rambling, making her step back as she gently massaged her bow-covered feline ears. I finally had her attention, but the atmosphere was beyond stiff and I desperately wished that I had something, _anything,_ that I could do to dispel it. Unfortunately, Blake gathered her wits before I did; turning on her heel, she bolted from me like her life depended on it. I did my best to follow, but she was much faster than I was. By the time I made it back to where we'd been sitting, Blake had disappeared from the library altogether.

"Damnit..." I was angry; not at her, but at myself. I should've said something before she ran, but now I'd missed my chance and potentially ruined any chance for a meaningful friendship. Gamer's mind was useless if I didn't act on the supposed "logical thinking" it gave me.

 **New quest available!**

~ **Damage control.**

 **Your actions caused Blake to run away, so do your best and make up with her!**

 **Time Limit: Two weeks.**

 **Success: 10,000 EXP, increased closeness with Blake.**

 **Failure: Relationship with Blake set to 0** **, Blake withdraws from Beacon.**

 **Do you accept? Y/N**

I more or less punched the 'Yes' button as my determination settled in. Yes, I swore I was going to clear the air between us even if it killed me.

I started to leave since my team was expecting me to return soon, but a final glance at the table revealed that Blake had left her book behind. I slipped it into my the crook of my arm, grabbed my headphones, and quietly departed from the library. Once I was alone I put the book, still in its cover, into my inventory and made a note to return it to her at some point.

In the meantime, I needed to relax somehow and get myself together.

When I reached JNPR's room and opened it, I was surprised to see not only my team, but Ruby and Yang as well. The TV was displaying Sonic Adventure 2, and everyone was sitting around in rapt attention while Yang blazed through Metal Harbor in what must've been record time. Her movements were practiced, not allowing a single second to tick by without progress. When Yang touched the end goal and the game scored her run as an A-rank, she flipped her blanket of blonde hair around her shoulder dramatically and bowed to her applauding audience.

As she rose and gave me a hearty smirk, I knew for a fact that she was one of my kind: a gamer.

"So, Jaune, what did you think?" Yang's teasing tone snapped me out of my stupor. "Pyrrha told me all about your memory card woes, so Rubes and I decided to help you out."

I laughed, the act helping to relieve my Blake-fueled worry. "I'm impressed, but Metal Harbor isn't the most difficult stage to A-rank. If you pull that off in the Cannon's Core stage in one run, though, then I'll really owe you one. I never managed to A-rank those."

Yang gave a snort. "Owe me one? For that amount of effort, I want to be pampered like a queen."

Nora hopped up and pointed an accusatory finger at the brawler. "Nuh-uh, I'm the queen of this castle! You better find another kingdom to rule over, missy!"

"Sounds good to me, I'll just have to rule the roost in RWBY's room instead."

"Sis, I hope you haven't forgotten that I'm the team leader." Ruby rolled her eyes before turning to address me. "I hope you don't mind us taking over your Chao World, but when Yang saw that neither Chao was named she yelled out 'blasphemy!' and named one of them CerealG, dedicated to Pyrrha."

Said champion lit up like a Dustmas tree and turned away, clearly embarrassed. I walked over and gave her an 'I'm sorry that happened' pat on the back. "What about the second Chao?"

"He is now Bubbles," answered Nora cheerfully. "I almost named him Squishy, but when we looked at his stats and saw he had A-Ranks in Stamina and Power it didn't seem right. By the way, CerealG has B-ranks down the line except for an E in swimming."

"Oh~?" My voice took on a teasing tone and I felt Pyrrha stiffen next to me. "Pyrrha, if you need me to teach you how to swim that's perfectly fine."

One embarrassed shove later, I was flat on the ground while the rest of the group laughed. As I made to stand my scroll began to buzz. I looked at the caller ID before smiling and answering the video chat. "Hey, mom, how's it going?"

The face of Juniper Arc beamed back at me, nearly identical to my own. To my eternal dismay, I had always looked much more feminine than masculine; apparently, my mom's DNA was way stronger than my dad's. Her sapphire eyes twinkled as she responded with, "I'm doing wonderful, Jaune. How was my favorite son's first week of Beacon?"

Revolutionary, frightening, and already filled with drama; sounds like any high school. "Pretty good. My team has been great, and classes are mostly okay. I don't know how anyone passes Oobleck's classes, though."

"He always has been energetic. When can I meet this team of yours?"

"Right now, if they don't mind." On cue the others stood up, allowing my mom to see all of them as I did a panning shot of the room. "That's Ren and his partner Nora, that's Ruby and her sister Yang in the back, and finally my partner Pyrrha. Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and I make up Team J-N-P-R, pronounced Juniper."

An off-screen voices shouted, "Ozpin named your team after my wife? What kind of logic is that!?"

Nicholas Arc appeared and gave a friendly wave to everyone while Mom was struggling to contain her laughter. Nicholas was a lion of a man, with a full head of sandy-blond hair and an untrimmed beard. His fierce jawline belied a good-natured soul. Pyrrha returned the wave as she responded, "It's a pleasure to meet both of you. Your name is Juniper, ma'am?"

"Indeed. Tell us, are there other team names like that?"

"Oh yeah," answered Nora. "Ruby here is the leader of team RWBY, and a guy named Cardin leads team _Cardin_ -al. It's _super_ confusing sometimes." Ruby nodded her head in agreement.

"Then it sounds like Ozpin hasn't changed a bit." Mom was more amused than offended at the use of her name. Her smile was replaced by a head tilt. "Wait a moment; who's the leader of JNPR?"

I flushed and rubbed the back of my head as Nora answered, "Jaune-Jaune is, of course! He came up with the plan that helped put down the vicious thirty foot long deathstalker during initiation!"

Both of my parents flinched, all mirth wiped from their faces in an instant. Nicholas took a breath before resuming his smile and saying, "Well, I'm proud of you son. You children are obviously in the middle of something, so we'll just let you go."

"Dad, wait." My voice interrupted him as he moved to hit the end call button. "I need to ask for some advice."

"Hmm." Nicholas and Juniper gave identical chin rubs as they openly contemplated my request, but Mom was the first to speak. "The way you said that means it's obviously something serious, but can I ask your friends a question first?"

"I guess?" I held the scroll in the air like I did before. They all looked at me as if they were wondering what was going on, but all I could do was shrug and wait for my mom to ask her question.

"This is important to me, so all of you please answer seriously." Juniper Arc gave all of the teens deep, appraising looks; but none of my friends looked away, understanding that whatever she wanted to talk about was nothing light. "Are any of you..."

Breathes were held around the room as she paused.

"...interested in my son romantically?"

A beat of absolute silence passed as they processed the question. I felt my face go cherry red when Yang was the first to crack, busting out in open laughter. "Hahaha! Mrs. Arc, Jaune threw up on my new boots the day we met. He's nice and all, but Vomit Boy isn't getting any attention like that from me."

"Oh, really?" Ren spoke for the first time since my arrival, a smirk on his face as he eyed my fellow blond. "I seem to recall you wanting him to, quote, 'pamper you like a queen.'"

Yang's laugh died while Nora guffawed and Pyrrha chuckled behind her hand. "Wait, that was-"

"That was something else!" Ruby jumped in to defend her sister, her silver eyes looking halfway between shocked and nervous."Geez, Ren, you've gotta stop taking things out of context! Right, Jaune?"

"Right...?" Her sudden burst caught everyone off guard, myself included. _"What's up with her all of a sudden?"_

Juniper nodded to herself. "I see. It was so nice to meet all of you. Please treat Jaune well going forward; though, if he gets into one of his stubborn streaks, feel free to give me a call. I'll straighten him out for you."

I felt mildly offended by that one. "I don't get that stubborn, Mom."

"Our whole family would beg to differ, Son." Nicholas was somehow smiling and not at the same time. "Anyways, let's go have that talk you wanted."

I stepped out of my dorm room and stood in the hallway by myself. My mom slipped away from the scroll to 'let the boys do their thing'. "I need to ask you two things, dad."

"Go ahead, shoot."

"Alright." I took a deep breath. "First up, I accidentally found out something about one of my friends that they wanted to keep hidden, and now I'm afraid I've pushed them away for good. Without any specifics, what would you do to fix the whole situation?"

"Boy, you're giving me a hard question right off the bat." Nicholas frowned, evidently hoping for something a little bit easier. "You say no specifics, but let me ask this: is the thing you discovered particularly important or dangerous?"

I gave it some thought. "It doesn't seem like a big subject to me, but they obviously think otherwise."

"Then all I can say is try to talk to him or her, but don't be super aggressive about it. Let them know you're open to talking and then wait for them to respond in kind. Does that help?"

It did and it didn't, in a way. I suspected that any attempt to talk to Blake would result in her running away again. Maybe I could pass a message to her through her teammates? "Kind of; it's a better starting point than I had, at least. Thanks."

He gave a fatherly smile. "Not a problem. Now what was the second thing you needed?"

"The second thing is... How would you define charisma?"

Dad blinked. "Huh?"

"Charisma. What do you think it is?"

Dear old Nicholas looked at me long and hard, trying to decipher what I was getting at. A good twenty seconds later, he set the scroll down and walked away. When he returned a moment later, I could hear the sound of paper rustling in his fingers. "Charisma. Noun. Compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion-"

I barely refrained from tossing my scroll to the side in frustration. "Dad, I'm being serious here."

"I know that! I'm just not sure how to answer you. Huh?" He looked away from the scroll, apparently having been addressed off-screen. Dad listened intently to who I assumed to be my mother, nodding periodically as he covered the speaker portion of the scroll with his hand, blocking the sound. After a couple minutes he turned his attention back to me, eager to share with me his (Mom's) wisdom. "Jaune, have you ever heard of leaders who know how to inspire people or rally them to their cause, despite any fear or worries they may have?"

"I've heard of some examples in my history classes, yes," I remarked dryly.

"Throughout history, people like that tend to be assertive, or great public speakers. Those around them are attracted by personality, their force of will. That's what charisma is: the force of your personality upon others. Am I making sense? I feel like I'm not making sense."

I rolled my eyes. _"Yes, Dad, it's my personality that'll let me summon a Keyblade when I hit forty charisma. Out of all of Sora's traits-"_

My mind ground to a halt. _"Wait a second. In Kingdom Hearts one, the Keyblade chose Sora over Riku in Destiny Islands because Riku had let his mind become clouded by darkness. Riku played on Sora's emotions in Hollow Bastion, thus switching ownership of the magical tool, which switches **again** when Sora settles his heart and decides that his friends are his power. Holy crap, it actually adds up!"_

 **By realizing a truth of your world, your INT and WIS have increased by 1!**

"Hello? Remnant to Jaune, do you copy?" Dad's voice was almost teasing as he poked fun of my vacant expression. "Did I break you? I'd hate to have to explain that to everyone."

"Nah, I'm perfectly fine. Just zoning out a lot since I joined Beacon." Which was something else I had to fix. "Thanks, I actually feel a lot better. Tell mom I said 'thank you for your help.'"

"You're welc- Hey!" We shared a laugh, which felt good after all of my confusion. "You stay safe, okay, Son?"

"I will. Talk to you later, Dad." The call ended and I walked back into the dorm. Nora was busy feeding Bubbles some penquins and seals. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, just some Chao care," Pyrrha answered with a smile. "Can I ask a question, Jaune?"

"Sure thing."

"Does your mother always pull those kinds of stunts?"

"If not her, than my sisters do," I said with a shrug. "You get used to it, to some extent."

Pyrrha gave a small 'hm' and turned back to the screen. I'd already commited myself to ignoring my Mom's wingman attempts, but a part of me was curious about where my "relationship values" were at. I brought up the list while Ruby got started on the next stage in the game.

 **Arranged by closeness**

 **Ruby Rose -36- Good Friend (?)**

 **Pyrrha Nikos -32- Partner**

 **Nora Valkyrie -27- Fearless Leader**

 **Lie Ren -26- Friend and Leader**

 **Yang Xiao Long -23- Friend**

 **Blake Belladonna -11-** **(Unknown)**

 **Weiss Schnee -6- Acquaintance**

 **Sky Lark -5- Acquaintance**

 **Cardin Winchester -(-15)- (Expletive Deleted)**

 _"...Why is there a question mark by R_ _uby's name?_ _Did I do something wrong again?"_ A whole new flock of worries came to mind while my friends all enjoyed themselves. In the back of mind I regretted looking at that list, because it had only added to my concerns for the weekend.

X

 **Poor, foolish Jaune. You really shouldn't go unveiling people's secrets like that!**

 **Contest!**

 **In honor of hitting 500 followers, I will be writing a reader-requested "What if?" story set in this universe. This, and any such stories I write going forward, will be known as a 'DLC Pack'. A DLC pack will be made for every 500 follower milestone. I'd do more of them, but the simple fact is that I don't have the time to do so between family and work.**

 **I've opened a forum named "Charismatic Gamer: DLC", where anybody can share their ideas with me without clogging up space in the reviews here. After an undetermined amount of time I will select three of my favorite ideas and create a profile poll so that you (the readers) can establish which DLC you'd actually like to read/purchase. Please do not, I repeat, _do not,_ post any DLC ideas in the reviews here.**

 **The DLCs won't have any specific word limit, though, if I were to guess, I suspect that any reasonable idea won't extend far beyond 10k in length. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong.**

 **I love all of you for taking the time to read this schmucks's writing, and I eagerly await giving you readers what you want instead of what I want. Thank you!**

 **For now, GG!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Skill shop Shopkeeper

**A/N:** **RWBY has been confirmed to be joining Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and Under Night in a crossover fighting game developed by Arksys. Please leave a message after the squeal.**

 **Eeeee~**

 **In the meantime, I heard that y'all like skills.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

It was 10 A.M. on Saturday morning when I finally saw fit to get up from bed, somehow alone in my dorm room for the first time. Pyrrha was doing some exercises and Ren had to accompany Nora while she did some "research", apparently. With sleep no longer a necessary part of my life, I'd been free to stay awake all night and stress out about A) Blake avoiding me, B) Ruby having that question mark, and C) what skills I wanted to find at Blossom's shop this weekend. These days I was avoiding staying out at night so that I didn't worry Pyrrha too much; it was all fine and dandy, but that meant having around eight hours a night to do _absolutely nothing productive._

I both loved and hated my Semblance.

But now that the morning had come, I could solve at least one of my problems: namely, calling Blossom and asking him what games he had in stock! I didn't want to call too early and wake him up ('cause that's rude) but I needed to know if he had any final fantasy games in stock aside from the one I had. Having 'Cure' was extremely tempting, but I wanted to make sure my decision to get it was properly informed.

Pulling up his store number on the Vale Yellow Pages website, I dialed it into my scroll and waited.

 _Boooop._ _Boooop. Booo-_ "Hello? Blossom speaking."

Success! It was voice only, but I didn't mind. "Hey, Blossom, it's Jaune. I'm not bothering you, am I? I know you don't actually open for another hour."

The older man's voice told me he was happy, if a bit tired. "Nah, it's all good. How can I help you first thing in the morning?"

"I was wondering if you had some of the older Final Fantasy games in stock. Any of the games five through ten."

"Gimme' a minute." He stepped away, so I just sat on the edge of my bed and waited. Almost sixty seconds later on the dot, his voice came back on the line. "You're in luck, I've got all of those on hand. You can buy'em if you come within two hours, but after that I've got some errands to do. I'll have to shut the store down for the day."

I nodded despite the fact that he couldn't see me. "Sounds good, I'll-"

"Actually..." Blossom interrupted me as his voice took on a musing quality to it. "You remember all those years ago, when you were a kid and said you wanted to work for me and make some spending money?"

I got a strange feeling about the conversation. "Kind of. I couldn't do it because the trip was too far from Ansel to do every afternoon."

"Well, how'd you feel about coming down and manning the store today? Saturday is always a busy day for me, but I don't have any part-timers to take my spot. I know you're busy with your stuff for Beacon, but..."

 **New quest!**

 **~Work at the store!**

 **Your family's friend Blossom hates the idea of losing business. Do him a favor and he'll reward you!**

 **Success: 5,000 EXP, 750 Lien, ?, increased closeness with Blossom.**

 **Failure: 1 EXP, decreased closeness with Blossom.**

I smiled as I went over the page. If I spent several hours there working, I'd be able to look over as many games as I wanted when there were no customers to look after. It was _perfect_ , and I praised Monty for giving me such a blessed opportunity. "No worries, Blossom. I should be there within the hour. Does that work for you?"

Blossom was ecstatic, of course. "Great! Thank you so much, I'll make it worth the effort. See you soon."

"See you there." I hung up the phone and dressed myself in a blue button-down shirt and jeans, wanting to be presentable. Sending a message to my team that I'd be working in Vale, I was ready and out the door; but before I walked down the hallway, I stopped and stared at RWBY'S door.

I figured I might as well try and fix my other problems, too.

I knocked on the door and waited for somebody to answer. Some muffled voices came from the other side, probably arguing about who should answer me, before Ruby opened the door and poked her head out. She was dressed in her combat outfit, and smiled as she looked up at me. "Hey, Jaune! What's up?"

"Headed into Vale in a second. Is... Blake available to talk?" Half of me wanted her to be there, the other half said 'Wait, not yet!'

Side B won, because Ruby shook her head. "She vanished first thing in the morning. I hope she hasn't forgotten that we have a team exercise today."

Despite myself, I breathed a sigh of relief at the news. "Well, if you see her, can you pass on a message for me?"

Red tilted her head curiously. "I guess. Am I gonna need to write this down, or...?"

"No, it's a pretty short message. Just tell her that I'm sorry for upsetting her yesterday, and that I'd like to talk to her when she has the time."

"Can do, buckeroo. She did seem kind of off yesterday." Ruby's voice trailed off before she mentally picked herself back up and eyed me up and down. "You look nice in that. Can I ask what you're dressed up for?"

"Just some part-time work, that's all. Thanks for your help, Ruby." I started to turn away before remembering that Ruby _herself_ was one of my worries. "Ruby, is... everything okay between you and me?"

"Hm? Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Her confusion shifted into an open gasp. "I didn't do something weird, did I!?"

"No, no! It's just-" I stopped talking as I looked at her face; Ruby couldn't have been any more perplexed, and her expression was funny enough that I could only laugh at the whole scenario. _She doesn't hate me! Good to know._

You wouldn't believe how much better I felt with just that little piece of information. Ruby was my first Beacon friend, and I definitely was not ready to lose that friendship over a misunderstanding caused by my Semblance. After my laughs subsided a bit I said, "Sorry, Ruby; I guess I got wrapped up in my own worries again."

"Oookay?" She sounded as nonplussed as she looked. "Anyways, I'll see you later Jaune. Have fun with your job, I guess."

"Yep. Later, Crater face." Ignoring her indignant 'hey!', I departed to take care of business. It was time to see what super-ultra-powerful moves I could learn!

I made it to the store fifteen minutes before the hour, almost salivating in anticipation as I tapped on the glass door for entry. Blossom opened it a moment later, looking rather tired as he said, "Perfect timing, I just got everything set up for you. Come in, I'll give you the rundown."

My instructions were pretty simple: customers could pay with cash or card, the restroom was not for public use, I could eat food on the front counter as long as there were no customers (not that there would be an issue in that department), and pets had to be kept outside. Blossom would be gone until four or so, and he'd give me 750 Lien for my time since I'd essentially been brought in for an emergency shift. He showed me how his computer's inventory system worked and how customers could pre-order.

The first customers arrived at 11:10, and Blossom watched over me as I handled the transactions with 'new-guy-who's-polite' grace; basically, I was all smiles, waves, and full of 'have a nice day' cheer while they mumbled at me and slid money across the counter. Much to my dismay, I learned that many people were tempted to steal from the store; this meant that if a customer was in the building, I _had_ to keep an eagle's eye on them to disrupt their attempts. Fortunately, 'Observe' allowing me to check their emotions meant that I could spot potential troublemakers as they walked in the door. By 11:45 Blossom was confident enough of my ability to handle the store, so he got some things together in a bag and rolled on out. Thus began my mission: to catalogue as many games as possible.

Like many things in life, it was easier said than done.

"Thank you for your purchase. Have a nice day!" It wasn't like there were a lot of customers, but there always seemed to be one or two loitering around the store. The clock struck one in the afternoon, and I'd only managed to look at the Final Fantasy games for their skills. With a sigh. I pulled up the note that I'd written on my scroll.

[Final Fantasy Skills

FF 1 - Fire

FF 2 - Osmose

FF 3 - Aero

FF 4 - Dark Wave

FF 5 - Jump

FF 6 - Slot

FF 7 - Dice

FF 8 - Water

FF 9 - Steal

FF 10 - Haste

FF 13 - Cure]

 _'None of these are bad per se, but they're very...underwhelming. I won't learn Fire, Aero, or Water because I'm pretty sure my friends can do similar things with Dust. Dark Wave uses my HP to attack, so that's out since I'm pretty sure I don't have multiple lives or a way to revive myself. Steal is out, Dice is just lame- I mean, Cait Sith of all characters?! Come on. That leaves Osmose, Jump, Haste, Slot, and Cure-'_

 _Ding!_

The bell rang to announce a new customer, so I put my scroll away and put on my professional smile. "Hello, welcome to Games 'n'... Sky?"

Said acquaintance raised one hand in a lazy two-finger wave, his slicked back hair swaying a bit as he walked up to me. "That's me. You busy earning some money, Jaune?"

"Doing the owner a favor. He had some mysterious errands to run." I gave a shrug. "He wouldn't tell me what; but he's paying, so I'm not complaining. How can I help?"

"I'm looking to pre-order a game here. Gamestop is way too busy for me to try and get in there today."

I stepped over to the computer and brought up the appropriate program. "Sure thing, man. What game?"

"Undertale, the PS Vita version."

I started to type, but only got as far as 'Unde' before I stopped and gave him a level look. "Care to try that again? Everyone knows that Undertale is a Steam only game. If you want to buy a money card, they're on that stand to your left.

Sky tilted his head in confusion before adopting an exaggerated 'oh' expression. "You didn't know? Toby Fox and PlayStation announced that the PS4 and Vita were getting releases. There's even a collector's edition with a musical locket. Look it up."

Feeling doubtful, I typed "PS4 Undertale" into the computer's web browser... and promptly had my expectations _smashed._

On the official PlayStation website was a trailer for none other than Undertale, exactly as Sky said. My jaw unhinged a little bit as I processed this new information, causing Sky to laugh. "I know, right? I was stunned, too. Up to this point I hadn't found that many games I wanted to play on my Vita- well, none that the company bothered to import from Mistral, anyway."

Just as he said, I was stunned; however, it wasn't for quite the reason he thought it was. _'I'd never bothered to consider the skills I could get from Undertale since it was download only, but now I want- no, I **need** to know. When does it come out? Ah, about two months from now. That's going to be a loooong wait for me.'_

Finally addressing Sky again, I said, "Alrighty, one pre-order for you and one foot in the mouth for me. That'll be fifty Lien, please."

"Yep yep, here you go." He passed me the money and I got him his receipt. "Thanks. I'm curious, Jaune: what games do you usually play?"

The question surprised me, or at least his curiosity did. "Oh, a little bit of everything. You?"

We talked for the next several minutes, both happy to share a couple of horror stories about FPS games and how it felt like everybody else was better. It was honestly fun.

 **Your closeness with Sky has increased by 1!**

Eventually, Sky pulled out his Scroll and looked at the time. With a sigh, he said, "I've still gotta pick Cardin up some fire Dust, so it's time for me to roll out. It was nice talking to you, Jaune."

I nodded. "The feelings mutual. Speaking of Cardin, though, do you have any idea why he's been trying to get at me this whole week? I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything to get on his bad side, but he keeps giving me the evil eye."

Sky just shrugged. "The only thing he's said to us was that you looked weak, and then he mumbled something about your partner, the Nikos girl. My guess: he's either got bad history with her and you're guilty because you're partner..."

"-or he's crushing on her and I'm somehow in the way. Great." I let out a sigh as I finished the theory. Cardin's animosity towards me made more sense now, but it also made it clear that his glares and bullying attempts would continue for quite some time. "Thanks for telling me. See you around Beacon, Sky."

"Back at ya." Sky departed with the same wave he entered with, leaving me alone with my thoughts and hundreds more games to go through. Cardin was low on my priority list, so I put him out of mind and buckled down on the important things.

Maybe it was because it was lunchtime, but there were considerably less people from one o' clock to two-thirty, allowing me to knock out two additional franchises.

[Legend of Zelda skill list

First game - Sword Beam

Two - Sword Bounce

Link to the past - "Cane of Bryna" Spell.

Ocarina of Time - Farore's Wind

Majora's Mask - Deku Transformation

Wind Waker - Wind Shift

Twilight Princess - Spin Attack

Link's Awakening - "Pegasus Boots" Spell

Oracle of Ages - Summon "Long Switch"

Oracle of Seasons - "Roc's Cape" Spell

Skyward Sword - Skyward Strike

Breath of the Wild - Bomb Rune]

At the very least it was a much more impressive list than Final Fantasy. Barring the Deku transformation (which was questionable) and the spin attack (which I could probably do on my own anyways), there really weren't any 'bad' options. I wanted to gripe that the Oracle games had better items I could've used, but I supposed that time travel and instantly changing the seasons would've been a _little_ overpowered.

Side note: for some reason, Blossom had all three CD-i games in his back room, but I didn't even look at their TMs. Those games never happened.

Eeeevveeerrrr.

[Mega Man Skill List

MM - Rolling Cutter

MM 2 - Leaf shield

MM 3 - Shadow Blade

MM 4 - Ring Boomerang

MM 5 - Charge Kick

MM 6 - Flame Blast

X 1 - Shotgun Ice

X 2 - Bubble Splash

X 3 - Air Dash

X 4 - "Weapon Tank"

X 5 - W-Shredder

X 6 - Hyoroga

Zero - Summon "Triple Rod"

Zero 2 - Summon "Chain Rod"

Zero 3 - Summon "Recoil Rod"

Zero 4 - Sky Chaser

Legends - Vacuum Arm]

Mega Man was another franchise with juicy options available, and only one of them (bubble splash) was inherently bad! Sadly, neither it nor the previous two lists were truly complete due to Blossom not having the full collections, but I suspected it was the best I was gonna get. More frustrating than that was the fact he only owned Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Rising, limiting my choices there to "Ripper Mode" and, I shit you not, the "infinite grip strength" wig.

At 2:42 my scroll began to buzz, indicating a call from Blossom. I picked it up and immediately said, "I'm sorry, but I don't want whatever you're selling. You'll have to find a new customer elsewhere."

"Cute. Very cute." Blossom seemed amused enough at my joke, so I took it as a win. Is this how Yang feels with her puns? "How's the store doin'?"

"Not too bad. The Call of Duty pre-orders have capped out in your inventory, but nobody can be surprised about that. Also, a kid named Jade keeps trying to sneak in so he can steal your games. I've managed to catch him each time, but it's a little ridiculous how fast he is. I took a scroll photo of him so you'll know who it is when he walks in next time."

 **Your closeness with Blossom has increased by 1!**

"Good thinking, Jaune; I knew you were the right choice for the job. Go ahead and send me that so we don't forget about it later."

"Roger. Anything else, sir?"

"Just that I'll be back in an hour or so. Keep up the good work."

"Will do." I cut off the call there, making sure to immediately send him the photo of the offending kid. It wasn't a moment too soon, because a small crowd of people were approaching the store from the opposite side of the street. It was time for me to earn my 750 Lien. "Hello! Welcome to Games 'n' stuff, your favorite non-corporate game store!"

Yes, that was the slogan Blossom had me using. He and I needed to have a serious discussion about his business.

By the time Blossom came back around four, I'd dealt with a large group of Pokémon TCG players trying to set up a table in the shop, two kids licking the display case where the figurines were, and the aforementioned Jade punk staging a _different_ punk throwing up in the store to distract me. I gave him points for creativity, but the smell was foul enough for me to spray the entire building with 'fresh laundry scent' febreze even after I mopped it up. The pink haired owner walked in through the front, grocery bags over one arm and a black suitcase in the other. "I'm bac- What the hell is that smell?"

"You don't want to know," I answered with a sigh. "Need any help with those?"

"Nah, I got it." Blossom disappeared into the back rooms, but he shouted so he could still be heard . "So what've we made in sales today?"

"Seventeen pre-orders, two of those paid in full, and for the rest of the house..." I clicked through the computer screens as I paused. "Just under 250,000 Lien in sales. The customers were buying way more new goods than used, so I'm not sure how much of that you'll be seeing."

"I'll do the math later, don't worry about it." He reappeared and stood behind me, prompting me to turn and face him. He was holding out an envelope towards me, so I grabbed it and opened it up. It was 750 Lien, as promised. "Good job today. If you ever need to earn some money, hit me up so I can take a day off."

 **Quest Success!**

 **You earned: 5,000 EXP and 750 Lien!**

 **Your closeness with Blossom has increased by 10!**

 **You have earned the title of "Shopkeeper"!**

 **~Shopkeeper**

 **Your sociable nature draws in the customers and encourages them to return to your store. Just be wary of unsavory theives!**

 **10% bonus to Charisma, small boost to Lien drops from slain enemies.**

I smiled at both his kind words and the notifications before me. "Thanks, I might just do that. Do you mind if I buy a couple games before I roll out of here?"

"More power to you, it gives me some of that money right back," he boasted with a laugh. "Any games in mind? You've only had all day to think about it."

I walked over to the PS3 section and nabbed Metal Gear Rising, which still had a price of 149 Lien. Pulling out my scroll, I re-examined the Zelda skill list and made up my mind.

Two minutes later, I walked out of Blossom's store with my two new TMs in a plastic bag and 401 Lien left from my pay, bringing my remaining money to a total of 989 Lien. It was a good day as far as I was concerned, and it was about to get even better. I took the Bullhead back to Beacon, still in awe of the view below me, and marched out to the cliffside when it landed.

The evening sun still beaming strong, I set the bag down and fished out both games. The first game was a 3DS re-release, but it was cheaper than buying the original N64 cartridge.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Farore's Wind"?**

"Yeppers." The little card disappeared in the same flash of light that a disc would, zooming into my body and granting me power.

 **You have learned the skill "Farore's Wind"!**

 **~Farore's Wind (Active) LV: MAX AP cost: 100 to set, 100 to use.**

 **One of the magic spells that Link used to cut down on the time he spent traveling, this skill allows the user to teleport to a predetermined location of their choice. Travel wisely!**

 **The user must first create a point that they wish to "return" to. Reusing the skill will teleport the user and any object or people they are touching to the return point. There is a two second cast time for the teleportation. Any damage receieved will interrupt the skill use, but will not remove the return point. Upon a successful teleportation, the return point will disappear and must be reset.**

 **This skill cannot level.**

 _'The casting interruption means it might not be useful during a heavy fight, but otherwise it sounds pretty great. I made a good choice.'_ Nodding to myself, I put the empty case back into the bag and touched the second TM.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Ripper Mode"?**

"..." It was a much more troubling skill to use, this I knew without a doubt; but in a real skirmish I might not have the luxury of being picky. "Yes."

 **Error! You are missing these prerequisites: 20 STR, 20 DEX.**

I gave a quiet 'hm' and put the plastic bag with both cases and the game into my Inventory. It seemed that it was finally time to hit the gym. Deciding to return to the dorm for some workout clothes, I made my way to the room and opened the door. Pyrrha and Ren were studying, while Nora-

"Hey, Jaune-Jaune! I've been looking for you!"

-was in my face in a heartbeat, almost bouncing in excitement. I laughed and walked around her, unbuttoning my outer shirt as I did so. "You could've messaged me, you know."

"I know, but you were working and all that; plus, I wanted to see your face for this." She hopped backwards and pointed a finger into the air dramatically. "For you see, I have decided on the song that I want you to perform for me like you promised!"

"Ah, I see." In all honesty, I'd forgotten about that; but an Arc always keeps his word, so I had to take it in stride. "Alright, what am I playing for you?"

"I'm sorry," interrupted Ren remorsefully from his bed. "I tried to get her to change her choice, but she wasn't having any of it."

"Huh?"

Nora removed the confusion quickly. "It isn't really a guitar song, but instead something I want you to sing."

"That won't be a problem, promise." Oh-ho-ho, was I wrong. "What song is it?"

Nora's smile somehow grew wider. "Have you ever seen the first episode of Spongebob Squarepants?"

"Wow, that takes me back. It was a long time ago, so give me a second." I sat down and talked as the memories rose to the surface. "Let's see: Spongebob goes to apply at the Krusty Krab and gets sent to find some crazy three-headed spatula, a mob of anchovies swarm the restaurant while Mr. Krabs and Squidward panic, Spongebob returns to the restaurant and-"

It struck me like lightning, sending trepidation and fear through my body and into my very soul. "Nora... Nora _, no..."_

"Nora, _Yes_! The song I want you to sing is-!"

 **New quest!**

 **~JNPR Performance - Nora's Choice.**

 **The bubbly hammer wielder wants you to perform "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight"! Better practice your falsetto...**

 **Time limit: One week.**

 **Success: 15,000 EXP, increased closeness with JNPR, ?**

 **Failure: 1,000 EXP, ?**

 **Declination: Decreased closeness with JNPR.**

 **Do you accept this quest? Y/N**

I put my face into my pillow and screamed.

X

 **Yay for skills and quests!** **You readers may be surprised to hear this, but among the Mega man skills, I honestly don't know which I'll be adding to Jaune's arsenal. What do *you* think feels right?**

 **The DLC pack contest I detailed in the last chapter is still accepting submissions! Head over to my forum and share your idea with the world!**

 **The omake below is just a silly little idea I had. Enjoy!**

X

 _Omake: Snow Jaune and_...

RWBY and JNPR were eating lunch together, as was normal for us now. We'd been doing this routine for... gods, four months now? Five? Who knows.

Nora suddenly leaned over the table and addressed me directly. "Hey, Jaune. I've got a question that I've wanted to ask you ever since you told us about your Semblance."

"Ah, you mean that overwhelming, dramatic moment that sealed our bonds of friendship with each other?"

"There were a lot of laughs, too," interjected Ruby. "I had fun, even if it was stressful."

Pyrrha swooned a little in her seat. "It was a romantic time, even a little tragic!"

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Tragic? How?"

"What Velvet did to Cardin counts," offered Blake. A laugh sounded out from across the cafeteria, emanating from the owner of two bunny ears.

"Ah." I could only nod in recognition. "Anyways, what about it, Nora?"

"Well, you don't need sleep and any food you eat gets converted straight to health, right?"

"Riiiight?" I motioned for her to continue.

Nora lowered her voice a bit. "When was the last time you actually, you know, _used the restroom_?"

"That's it? It was-" I stopped. The search through my internal hard drive yielded zero answers. I, Jaune Arc, could not remember the last time I'd used the facilities.

To my surprise, Nora kept going. "Also, aren't you theoretically able to eat as much food as you'd like without getting full or gaining weight?"

"I-I mean, yeah, I guess. Why are you asking about this now?"

A paper was slammed on the table for all to see. On it were the words 'First annual oyster eating competition! Winner receives one million Lien!' Nora's smile was as wide as the waters that the oysters would be collected from. "How about you enter this?"

"Oysters?" I'd never been a big fan of them. "Why would I enter it?"

Weiss grabbed the paper and perused it. "I think I see what she's getting at. Jaune can eat as much food as any professional eater, and without fully functioning insides he won't have to worry about any food sickness. It's crazy, but it could work."

"Nora." Ren turned to chide her. "Please tell me you didn't already sign him up for this."

"Okay, I didn't sign Jaune up for this." Nobody around the table bought it for an instant, so she dropped the act. "Come on, guys, if we split the prize eight ways that's over 100 grand for each of us. Think about it."

I sighed. "Nora, I really don't want to-"

A hand grabbed my arm. Its owner, Yang, was nearly drooling. "You still owe me for those boots you ruined, Vomit Boy. This will do nicely, don't you think?"

"That was back before initiation! You're going to pull that on me now?!"

"Jaune~" Ruby's voice was almost a damn _purr_ as she slipped around the table and used her patented 'Ruby eyes' technique. "I think it's time we updated your equipment, don't you agree? We can infuse Crocea Mors with Dust, or add a new function to the shield..."

"Oh, and your little baby wouldn't benefit from this?" Press 'X' to express doubt.

"Crescent Rose would only get a tune-up, I swear! And... maybe a better material for the scythe. I hear Adamantium is all the rage now."

I was incredulous. "Is that stuff even real!?"

Pyrrha rose to her feet almost indignantly. "You're all letting the money go to your head! Jaune is clearly uncomfortable with this."

My heart soared at the sight of my partner keeping her head in place for my sake, but then Yang leaned forward with a sultry smirk. "Combine this with your sponsorship money, Cereal Girl, and you could own a beach resort easily. A nice, private place, where you and your guy can spend aaaalll the time you want in sweet, saucy solitude."

My heart prompty dropped at the sight of Pyrrha swooning again, the champion mumbling to herself and sending some glances my way. I looked to Blake for help, but she simply held up a piece of paper that had 'private library' written on it. Of course. I turned to Weiss, but the heiress simply offered me a shrug. "I may be the heiress to the SDC, but it's always nice to have a cushion in case things go awry. Sorry, Jaune."

My last bastion of hope was Ren, but even that light was dashed when I witnessed his contemplative eyes. "Et tu, Lie Ren?"

"..." He didn't answer me for a moment, clearly crunching some mental numbers. When he finally spoke. it was as neutral a voice as I'd ever heard from him. "I could start a commercial line of herbal supplements, and the possibilities are nearly endless from there. Speaking logically, there's no reason for you to abstain from participating."

"No... Nooo!" I started to run, but Ruby's Semblance allowed her to tackle me and take me out by my legs. We hit the ground hard, but no more than a second had passed before I was picked up by the armpits by Yang. "Please," I pleaded, "please let me go. I hate oysters so much!"

"No chance. It's seven-to-one, which is to say that it's unanimous."

"That isn't how it works! Pyrrha, help me!" My vermilion haired companion stood beside Yang...

...and 'booped' my nose. Nora, materializing to my right, gave a hearty grin. "Soon, all of Remnant shall hear about the hungriest of them all: our very own Jaune Arc!"

In the centuries that followed, legends would be passed down of a scrawny, blonde Huntsman, followed by his seven self-serving "dwarves", who won an unholy number of food-eating competitions. Whenever this mysterious boy would be offered his prize money and asked to leave a comment, the only words he would say were...

"Damnit, Nora..."

X

 **I hope you enjoyed it! For the record, I would _love_ to do an oyster eating competition; even if I got sick, it would be so worth it.**

 **Nora was a little troll today, wasn't she?**

 **For now, GG!**


	10. Chapter 10 - Parties

**A/N:** **Semi-important.**

 **I'd previously written Pyrrha's section a few chapters ago in first person POV, but I've decided that any POV that isn't Jaune himself shall be written in third person. This will not only help you readers not to get confused, but it will also keep myself from getting mixed up.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

My wordless scream went on for several seconds, muffled by the pillow but still understood by my teammates to be one of pure frustration. Pyrrha left her spot at the desk and came over to me. It seemed she was trying to console me and sate her curiosity at the same time, because she asked, "Jaune, is the song she picked that bad? I confess that I've never heard of it before, nor have I ever had the time to watch many cartoons."

I pulled myself up with a sigh. "It's not the worst song in the world, but... How do I say it? Any cool points I might've earned by playing other songs first will get destroyed."

I rubbed the back of my head and looked directly at her. "Though that reminds me: have you decided on what _you_ want me to sing, Pyrrha?"

"I have, actually," she confirmed with a bashful smile, "but I'm not sure if I want to put the stress on you now that you have Nora's song on your mind."

 **Quest update!**

 **(Expert) JNPR performance - All**

 **You have the chance to put on a full four song show, one for each member of the team. Can you get enough practice in before the big day?**

 **Success: 50,000 EXP, Massively increased closeness with JNPR, ?**

 **Failure: Decreased closeness with JNPR, ?**

 **There is no penalty for declining. Do you wish to keep your current quest or upgrade to Expert?**

I pondered the quest update for a moment. _'If I stay up all night practicing, it shouldn't be too much of an issue; plus, I already turned down one Expert difficulty quest already in Goodwitch's class. What kind of gamer would I be if I didn't take a big risk once in a while?'_

"I think I'll be okay doing multiple songs," I answered with a smile. "It'll be like a private concert. Sounds like a good bonding experience from where I'm sitting."

"Maybe, but where are you going to find the time to learn two songs," asked Ren with a raised brow. "We still have classes to take. I know we haven't been given any particularly difficult tests yet, but..."

"I'm a night owl by nature," _-'Since my Semblance became a thing, at least'-_ "so I'll get in plenty of practice. Also, it'll be three songs I need to learn, 'cause I'll be performing a song from you, too."

That seemed to surprise him a fair amount. "You really don't have to. I'm already grateful that you're going along with Nora's shenanigans-"

"Are you saying I'm a hassle, Renny?"

"-so you don't need to give me any special treatment," he finished in the same tone he started with.

"I know I don't need to, but I want to. Music is fun for me, so it's all worth it in my book. Just don't choose another... 'Nora song' and I'll be okay." I laughed to myself when I realized that I was in the hilarious position of having two teammates who were actively trying to not bother me too much while I was telling them to do just that. _'Stop being so polite, you two. This is how I gain experience.'_

Pyrrha and Ren shared a silent exchange, using their eyes to ask the other if the whole scenario was okay. Ren was the one to break the silence saying, "Very well, I look forward to watching your performance. I don't have a song in mind right now, so can I perhaps get back to you tomorrow?"

"Sounds like a plan. I don't want this to hang over my head all semester, so how about we plan this thing for next Saturday?" The quest had a week deadline, so it seemed like my only option anyways.

Nora made a rather invigorated jump straight up with glee. "Yeeees! We'll find a nice spot around campus and have a picnic! Special picnic pancakes, soda, maybe some sandwiches. Wait, Jaune will be too busy practicing to cook. Ren, how confident are you in your tuna salad sandwiches?"

The verbal onslaught continued while the rest of us went about our evening. I felt a quite a bit of excitement at the thought of performing for my team, but I knew that I'd really have to bring my singing and playing skills up if it was going to go off without a hitch. Promising Pyrrha that I'd go to sleep at some point, I grabbed my guitar and went out towards the cliffs once more, the crisp evening air brushing past my cheeks.

Stopping before I reached the sheer rock wall, I found myself a nice patch of grass and settled myself in it. I had Nora and Pyrrha's song selections, so I was going to focus on nailing those two down a bit before figuring out what my own song would be.

 **Your closeness with Blake has decreased by 1!**

I looked around me to check if she was nearby, finding nothing and no one. _'I didn't do anything else wrong, did I? I'm pretty sure Ruby would remember to pass on my message, so maybe... maybe this is her answer.'_

My body dipped far enough for my head to thump the body of the guitar. _'Damnit, I might not have the luxury of waiting for her to reach out to me first. I guess I'll have to be more aggressive in my approach than I thought. Sorry, Dad, but your advice might've been wrong for this.'_

Using my scroll to bring up the "Livin' in the sunlight" song, I reset my position and started to practice. In the back of my mind, I prayed that I hadn't become the instigator of drama for team RWBY.

- **Ruby** -

The weekend had been pretty weird for Ruby Rose.

It had started off simply enough. Saturday morning, she gathered her team together in the fields after seeing Jaune when he'd knocked on their door. Blake had remembered to show up for the training session, so the morning hours had been filled with rather productive spars. Say what you would about the Ruby's age, she could feel in her bones how she could properly improve after Blake had wrapped Gambol Shroud around her ankle and thrown her into a tree.

Her head hurt for a while, but that only gave her more incentive to get better.

She'd even managed to create a team attack that Yang and Weiss could use, where her partner-slash-new bestie used her ice dust on the ground and Yang punched it, causing a ton of steam to appear and blind their foes. Now she only needed to figure out how _they_ could see past the steam and the attack would be set.

After a lunch of strawberries and cafeteria pizza (sausage and pepperoni, yum!) Weiss managed to get everyone studying in their dorm room, which was cool...

...ish...

...not really, but Weiss had been happy, so far be it from Ruby to ruin her good mood. That, however, was when things took a turn for the strange.

While Ruby was in the middle of balancing two pencils on her hose, she remembered that she was supposed to pass on Jaune's message and proceeded to do so. Rather than being thankful or, at the very least, dismissive in her usual attitude, Blake's reaction was like she'd been shocked. Her teammate's mouth flipped between being open and shut for a moment before she mumbled a "K" and reapplied her book to her face with as much force as she could.

Nobody missed this. Yang gave Ruby a questioning eyebrow and received two raised hands and a shrug in response: it was a mystery to her, too. Yang, sitting at a desk, looked at Blake and asked, "Did something happen, Blake? If Jaune needs to apologize for something, I'll be more than glad to help you squeeze an 'I'm sorry' out of him."

Blake shook her head rapidly. "It's nothing, Jaune didn't do anything bad. Just... don't worry about it, okay?"

"If you say so, Blake." It was clear Yang didn't buy it for a second, but what could we do? It was obviously personal, whatever it was. Ruby was sure that Blake and Jaune were mature enough to handle whatever had happened between them.

Emphasis on "was." It was now seven P.M. Sunday evening and Blake had been mysteriously missing the entire day. She wasn't in the dorm when they woke up, the cafeteria ladies said that they never saw her in the food lines, and Weiss had confirmed with the librarian that Blake hadn't been to the library ever since she'd been spotted running out like her life depended on it. The librarian noted that a blond boy matching Jaune's description had been trying to catch up to Blake before the latter successfully fled the scene. Naturally, the bow wearing girl had ignored all of their scroll calls.

Concerned for her teammate, Ruby called for an emergency team meeting back in the dorm room. A piece of paper with the words "Return Blake to normal!" was slammed on the desk that Ruby had moved to the middle of the room. "Alright, girls, we need to figure out two things: why Blake is avoiding us, and how we can fix it. Do we have any ideas?"

"I think I've got one," answered Yang. "What if one of them flirted with the other and got too inappropriate? Jaune was the guy who called Weiss 'snow angel' when he'd known her for less than a day, so it isn't too hard to believe that he might've made things awkward."

"Yaaang, you make him sound so sketchy!" She felt her skin bristle at the apparent insult. Jaune was her very first friend at Beacon for Oum's sake! He was nice, he could cook good food, and he always listened to her ramble on and on about weapons or whatever had her attention that day. Sure, he could be as awkward as she was sometimes; but there was no way that a guy who was as nice to her as he was could be a creeper.

Yang put her hands up defensively. "I wasn't trying to make him sound bad, I was just throwing out an idea. I mean for all we know, it could've been Blake that asked Jaune out. She could be into blonde guys."

An image of Blake asking Jaune for a date flashed through Ruby's mind. She wasn't sure why, but the thought made her chest tighten uncomfortably.

 _'Wait a second,'_ Ruby thought before addressing Yang. "Even if one of them asked the other out or whatever, why would that make Blake avoid the three of us? That makes no sense."

"Ah, good point," Yang conceded with a nod. "That just leaves me with the opinion that we should ask Jaune what happened."

"I concur," followed Weiss. "We won't get anywhere without additional information. Let's go to the source."

Silently agreeing with them, Ruby sent Jaune a message asking him to come to their room. He came over within a few minutes, his eyes scanning the room for something or someone as he let himself in their unlocked door. Apparently failing to find his target, Jaune sighed and said, "You called me over about Blake, didn't you?"

"Uh-huh," answered Yang as she frowned and crossed her arms. "She's been avoiding us, her team, the entire day, so this is the part where you tell us what you did wrong so we can order you to fix it."

"If I knew how to fix it I would've done it already," he replied with another sigh. "As to what I did wrong, I can't go into detail with making this whole thing worse than it is."

Weiss moved to his left and crossed her arms like Yang had. "Explain."

Jaune stood where he was, clearly struggling to come up with the right words. Ruby wanted to ease his mind in any way she could, but felt stuck as to how to do that. After a couple of moments he said, "Look, we all have things about ourselves that we wouldn't tell people we just met, right?"

"Right..." Ruby said as she pondered where he was going with this.

"Well, I was talking with her in the library when I, for lack of a better way to say it, wound up guessing one of her secrets completely by accident. The thing I 'guessed' must've been a sensitive topic for her, because she got mad at me and-" He abruptly cut himself off, taking a second to correct the sentence as he strangely massaged his throat. "Blake got _upset_ and ran away. I actually went looking for her today so I could apologize, but I couldn't find her anywhere. I never meant to hurt her, I promise."

The RWY girls examined him carefully, looking for any sign of deceit. Weiss seemed skeptical, but Yang and Ruby glanced at each other and agreed that he was telling the truth. Yang turned back to him and said, "I believe that you're being honest, but that still leaves us with a missing teammate. Where did you look for her?"

"The usual places: the cafeteria, the library, and the courtyard. I asked some other students, but nobody knew anything and I don't have her scroll information. What about you girls?"

"Same places," sighed Ruby. "The only thing I can think of is to wait until Blake goes to classes with us. She has to show up somewhere."

"I hope so; I really do." Jaune turned to walk out, but as he opened the door he offered some final words. "I truly am sorry for what happened."

With that he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. None of the girls had it in them to speak, but Ruby's eyes rooted to where Jaune had been standing. Her first friend at Beacon was depressed over something he'd done, and she felt that there just had to be something she could do.

"Ruby? Where are you going?"

She ignored Yang's question has she almost ran out of the dorm room. Her hand immediately went up to knock on JNPR's door, but she stopped when she realized that Jaune was sitting against the wall by RWBY's door, his face in his hands as he gave the biggest sigh yet. "Jaune? Are you okay?"

Jaune lowered his hands just enough to see her standing next to him. "Honestly?"

"No, I desperately want you to lie to me." Ruby didn't know where the impulse to joke had come from, but it at least got Jaune to chuckle for a moment. Progress. "This really is eating you up, isn't it?"

"Yeah... yeah, it is. We've barely been here a week, and somehow I've already screwed things up royally. Story of my life right there."

Ruby thought long and hard about what she should say. She needed to be inspirational, a friend that he could rely on. These were the words that would forever boost a friend up from the dark spot in his mind.

"Nope!"

He blinked. "Nope?"

"Nope," she confirmed as she crouched down until she was eye level with him. "You haven't screwed up, because we're all going to get through this thing together and be closer friends for it. After a fight comes the make up, after all."

"What makes you so sure? How can you be confident about this, Ruby?" There was a touch of desperation in his voice, like he truly needed to know whatever secret she knew. It made her sad yet even more determined at the same time.

"Because you're a good guy, Jaune. You made friends with me just because you saw me blow up, became the leader of your team when they all trusted you against the deathstalker, and even managed to help Weiss chill out. A little."

Jaune seemed a bit perplexed. "That's... I mean, those are all true, I guess; but what does that have to do-"

She put her hand in his face to silence him. "Nuh-uh, no buts. I have faith in you, okay? That's all any of us need right now."

He shook his head, but there was no denying the slight smile on his face. "Has anybody ever told you that you're a little weird, Ruby?"

"Hey, I consider myself to be more kick-butt than weird!" She put her hand out and helped Jaune to his feet. "Cheer up, Jaune. After we all get our happy faces back together, you and I can throw a joint-team party to celebrate."

"Haha, that sounds good to me. I can help with..." His sentence trailed off as his expression went vacant. "Party...?"

She was a little concerned. "Jaune? Hel-"

Her friend suddenly grabbed both of her shoulders, a smile growing wider and wider by the second. "Party! Ruby, you're a genius! Thank you, thank you!"

With that he brought her into a hug, lifting her up off of the ground as he started laughing. Ruby's face started to warm up from having her face so close to his, but she didn't want to say anything that would ruin his sudden good mood.

Well, that and the fact that she honestly didn't mind it.

When Jaune was done swinging her back and forth he set her down, smile a little smaller but no less dim for it. "Sorry about that; but you really did give me an idea, so thank you again!"

She struggled to contain the blush that she felt trying to overtake her face. "Uh, no problem. Is there... anything else I can do?"

"If something comes up and I need your help, I'll be sure to message you. See you tomorrow, Ruby!" He turned and sprinted down the hallway, paying no further mind to the girl he'd just left behind. Ruby grinned at his enthusiasm, happy that she managed to get through to him... whatever it was she did.

 _'Did you hear that, me? I'm a genius! Jaune said so himself, so it must be true.'_ She spun around and grabbed the handle to RWBY's door. _'All in a day's work for best friend Ruby-'_

As soon as the door opened, she came face to face with one Yang Xiao Long, who was wearing the rightly feared 'sisterly-teasing' expression. "You got awful close to lover boy there, huh?"

"Lover boy? Jaune? I mean he hugged me, so yeah." Ruby walked past Yang and kicked off her boots, desperate to avoid whatever dumb words were going to come from Yang's mouth. "I'm just glad I managed to cheer him up."

"And it's a good thing that you did, too, but what I'm talking about is how red your face got for a minute. Is there something you'd like to share with your big sister?" Yang leaned closer and closer as Ruby felt dread pool inside of her gut.

"Not really, no. Yang, don't you dare tickle me! Stop!" Her sides were grabbed and mercilessly attacked as Yang sought to drag out whatever false information she could from the girl. There was nothing to get so worked up over! She just helped a good friend out of a bad spot, that's all!

Right?

- **Jaune** -

It was so obvious! I should've been able to put the info together, but I spent all day just making myself depressed instead.

Pulling up his game menu, the party chat option popped up first, as if to say "Looking for me? Took you long enough." Naturally I couldn't use the chat if I wasn't in a party, so I brought up the party options menu as well.

 **Create Party [3 unused slots]**

 **Invite Player**

 **Kick Player**

 **Exp Gain**

I held my finger over 'create party', contemplating my foolishness up to that point. Something like my transcripts needed to stay hidden, yes, but my Semblance? The very thing that defined how strong I could be and what potentially crazy stunts I could do? Hiding it from my teammates and friends was stupid because not only was I bound to be sniffed out, I was one day going to be on missions with these people. They needed to know what I was and wasn't capable of. Starting with Blake.

 **What would you like to name Party 1?**

That was a good question, wasn't it?

- **Blake** -

Blake was lying on the roof of the training arena at Beacon, staring at the stars as they twinkled overhead.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. She was supposed to go through Beacon without anybody finding out about her being a Faunus, keeping a low profile until she was ready to be a huntress. Ready to fight for true equality.

In reality, not only had Ozpin figured her out before the semester even began, but Jaune had seen past her bow and noticed the cat ears. The former was understandable since he was the headmaster; he'd probably lived through and seen just about everything in life. A fellow student, though? And one that wasn't even on her team to begin with?

Her disguise had failed. It was as simple as that. News of her being a Faunus would spread and nobody would respect her opinion when she spoke up. She couldn't bear to see her friends now that they'd surely been told the truth. They were probably angry, as they had the right to be in hindsight.

 _'It would be easier to just... run away now. Leave Beacon. But with the White Fang still in Adam's hands-'_

 **You have received a party invitation! Would you like to join the party [Jaune is sorry]? Yes/No**

Blake blinked at the sudden text box in front of her. It was a semi-transparent blue with black letters, floating close to her face as she stared at the sky. Thinking it to be a delusion, she closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. It was still there when she opened them again. "What the hell is this? I must be hallucinating."

Slowly, Blake reached up and pressed the 'No' button, causing the box to disappear from view. She rolled onto her side and sighed, determined to put it out of her mind.

 **You have received a party invitation! Would you like to join the party [Jaune is truly sorry about what happened]? Yes/No**

There it was again, now between her and her view of the Emerald Forest treeline. _'I really don't need whatever this is. Maybe I'm asleep?'_

A quick cheek pinch determined that to be wrong. Sitting up now, she pressed the 'No' button again and waited.

 **You have received a party invitation! Would you like to join the party [You aren't going crazy, this is really Jaune and I swear I haven't told anybody that you're a Faunus]?**

"Thrice you have asked me, and thrice I have denied you." Quoting a line from "The Man with Two Souls", she hit 'No' again. Blake was more perplexed than anything else. She brought out her Scroll and saw that it was still turned off, just like she'd wanted it to be all day.

 **You have received a party invitation! Would you like to join the party [I can do this all night, Blake]?**

They say that curiosity killed the cat. She'd always hated that saying, because she liked to consider herself as being cautious; but this phenomena, whatever it was, now had her full and undivided attention.

She pressed 'Yes'.

 **You have joined the party [I can do this all night, Blake]!**

 **Welcome to the Game! You have joined the Game at the request of the Semblance holder, Jaune Arc. Unfortunately, as a restricted user, you do not have access to all of the features that The Gamer does. These blocked features include (but are not limited to): gaining experience points, applying SP to stats, using Technical Machines, and the Inventory Screen.**

 **You may, however, examine your own status, as well as use the party chat system freely. New parties may only be created by The Gamer, but you may leave the party of your own volition at any time and maintain use of the status screen and certain options menu selections. To see your menu and usable features, say or think 'Main Menu'.**

 **Please use the limited features available to you to their fullest extent. Thank you!**

It was a _lot_ to take in all at once, but her curiosity was only continuing to grow. Before she could begin experimenting with the supposed main menu, another text box popped up.

 _Jaune: Thank goodness you finally accepted the party invite. We've got a lot to talk about._

X

 **I had trouble writing this at first, which is why it took so long (I'm sorry!) Thankfully, and hilariously, this chapter was easier to produce after I started work on my new story "One New Message". I shall be alternating which story I write chapters for, so please look forward to reading both stories at relatively even paces.**

 **I hope you enjoyed it, and please consider leaving a review.**

 **For now, GG!**


	11. Chapter 11 - The Talk

**A/N:** **I think it's time Jaune had... the talk.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

I felt more than a little relief when Blake finally accepted the party invite; I mean, I was more than prepared to follow up on the threat of bugging her with the invites all night. Sleepless Jaune, at your service.

The party chat turned out to be all text-based, typed into a scroll-like keypad that popped up. No voice chat or "thinking the message into existence", you had to do things the old fashioned way. The sole benefit compared to just using a scroll seemed to be that it wouldn't rely on getting a signal from the CCT, meaning it would only be useful when technology was use- _less._ Oh well; it did the job here so I couldn't complain.

A small textbox appeared, courtesy of Miss Belladonna.

 _Blake: What the heck is this, Jaune?_

 _Jaune: My Semblance, and a headache-and-a-half. I don't want to be rude, but I'd really rather explain everything to you in person. Having to type everything in is gonna be annoying._

 **Error. Message over the 140 character limit.**

 _'Really!? Give me a break!'_ I removed the entire last sentence and sent it off, growing my second headache in full as I mentally raged at the many inconveniences of my Semblance. Even as things were, I had no idea how the Game would actually handle a party system.

 _Blake:_ _I'm outside the student training center. If you come by, we'll talk._

 _Jaune: See you there._

The training center was a separate building from the rest of the school, though only by a matter of twenty yards. I never found out why there was space between it and the main building, though Nora once theorized that it was to prevent the main school from catching on fire if a student went a little too crazy. Going out into the night air, I set my pace at a brisk walk so Blake wouldn't get bored waiting for me. I soon got to the main entrance, but Blake was nowhere to be seen.

A few moments passed with me looking for my raven-haired companion, until a short and sharp whistle made me look up. Blake was leaning over the rooftop's edge, and while it was dark out I could almost swear there was a bemused smirk on her face. As usual. "You got here rather quickly."

"I'm the kind of guy that shows up to a date ten minutes early. Any chance you could come down here?" She pulled her head back out of view. A moment later, a blur jumped off and landed next to me with barely a thump. Blake was wearing her combat outfit, the one I'd seen at initiation.

 **Blake Belladonna**

 **Emotion(s): Inquisitive, tense.**

It made sense to me. We were here to talk about my Semblance and her being a Faunus, after all. I spoke, my voice betraying my own trepidation, "So what, uh, should we talk about first? I feel like there's a lot to say, but I don't know where to start."

Blake didn't answer immediately, choosing instead to touch the air as if she were interacting with an invisible object. It struck me that she was probably going through a menu like my own. "This Semblance... Just what is it?"

"It called itself 'The Game'. I haven't had that long to tinker with it, so there are lots of things I'm still finding out about it. Like how there's a character limit for the party chat messages, which is bizarre."

She gave a simple nod. "I see. What kinds of things have you done with it?"

"Hmm." I wasn't stalling, just trying to find the right words. "I've learned new skills with it, like the fireball you saw me use, I can store items in an inventory and bring them out later, and I can see the stats and status of other people."

"...And the Lien that Ruby was ranting about the other day?"

"Guilty as charged. I would've said something back then, but would you have honestly believed me before you joined the party? Oh!" I remembered something I wanted to ask her. "What kind of things did the Game say when you joined the party? I mean you obviously figured out the chat, but what else?"

Even with the poor lighting, I could see Blake raise an eyebrow. "You honestly don't know?"

I shrugged. "Like I said, I haven't had it long. Tomorrow will make a week of using it."

That surprised her, though I only knew that because of 'Observe'. Ourwardly she was as stoic as ever, which led me to wonder how I would've ever handled her if I couldn't read her emotions like a book. After a moment's pause she said, "It welcomed me to the game as a, quote, 'restricted user', before telling me that I wouldn't be able to use some of the things that you can, like the inventory you mentioned. Apparently I can't gain experience, or use something called 'SP'. Before you got here I was looking at my stats and title. I've never been much for games, so it took me a while to figure out what the abbreviations meant, and I still haven't figured out what C-H-A is."

"That's charisma. Thanks for telling me all of that." Sadly, it only raised more questions for me. If a 'restricted user' can't gain experience, why does the party menu have an option to affect EXP distribution? It made no freaking sense. "Any other questions?"

"Yes, you said that you can see my status?"

"Yep."

Her voice remained neutral. "The status that shows my race as a Faunus?"

 _'Ah, she figured it out.'_ I nodded solemnly. "Yeah, that's how I found out. It took your ears twitching under your bow for me to find out what type of Faunus, though."

I took a breath before I continued. "Blake, I'm sorry that I upset you. I don't know why you're trying to hide your ears, but I still should've thought things through before opening my mouth. It's clear to me now that keeping this a secret is important to you, so I promise to not tell a soul about it."

Blake's poker face was impressive, but Observe showed me that her emotions were all over the place. Relief, disbelief, fear, and many others flew through her mind at warp speed. I let her think in silence, silently praying that my honest intentions got through to her.

After a solid minute of silence...

 **Your closeness with Blake has increased by 1!**

Blake gave an audible sigh. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I lashed out at you over my insecurities, and then ran before you had a chance to explain yourself. I'm sorry for, you know, slamming you against the bookshelf like that. Will you forgive me, Jaune?"

I couldn't stop the grin from spreading on my face, and in all honesty I don't recall trying to in the first place. I stuck my right hand out towards her. "Of course I do, let's put this whole thing behind us. I still need a friend to nerd out over books with, after all."

Blake restrained a laugh, but firmly shook my hand anyways. "I'm not sure if you read some of the books that I do, but I appreciate the sentiment."

 **Quest "Damage Control" Complete!**

 **Reward: 10,000 EXP!**

 **Your closeness with Blake has increased by 5!**

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

I laughed as I let her hand go. "By the way, I noticed that you've got really strong arms when you had me pinned. Is that from using that weapon of yours?"

"Of course. I swing my full body weight around using the ribbon, so I need to be able to do so without popping my arms out of their sockets."

"Makes sense." I started to walk back to the dorm, Blake following suit to my left. A thought occurred to me right then. "What are you gonna tell your team about this whole situation?"

She lowered her head in thought. "That depends. What did you tell them about our... I guess you could call that a fight?"

"Only that I made you upset. They were trying to figure out why you were avoiding them, so I told them that I guessed at something personal about your life."

"I see. Truthfully, I still don't feel safe sharing the fact that I'm a Faunus with them. One day I will, just not today. If they bug me about it, I'll come up with a story that won't make you look bad, promise." She chuckled a bit. "I guess we both know a secret about each other now."

I gave a small 'hm' under my breath. "Well, I'm actually planning on telling our teams everything I can about my Semblance. As I mentioned earlier, I'm still figuring it out; so, hopefully, us working together will lead to progress on that."

"Oh." Blake let the word hang in the air, and for a moment I wondered if I'd said something wrong again. She wasn't upset, though, and the silence continued until we were just outside of our rooms. As she took out her scroll to unlock her door, she turned to me and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, Jaune. Thank you for you-know-what."

"No problem. See you tomorrow." With a wave farewell, we split apart and turned in for the night. I could've stayed up to practice for the performance , but I'd already been gone for way longer than was expected by staying out to find Blake. There was no need to make my team angry that night when I'd just settled a dispute.

Monday classes went as well as expected, meaning Port was boring and I got lost in Oobleck's class. In the latter, Pyrrha sometimes pointed at sections of her textbook as cues for me to follow along, something I was very grateful for. On the way out of Oobleck's class Cardin tried to trip me, but I was able to sidestep it and keep on moving. Why he hated me was still a mystery.

As JNPR and RWBY ate supper together, the latter team seemed to have settled back into the usual roles. Ruby ate a lot of only two foods, Yang made some cringe-worthy puns, Weiss corrected her leader's lack of table manners, and Blake chimed in only at oppurtune moments to snark. It was enough to make me smile. Just before the two teams separated for the evening, I stood up and got everybody's attention. "If you guys don't mind, I wanted to share some things about my Semblance with you all. Is that okay?"

Ruby hopped up excitedly. "Of course it's okay! What kind of Semblance is it?"

My partner Pyrrha tilted her head a bit. "I don't think we should go announcing Jaune's Semblance to the whole cafeteria, Ruby."

"Oh, right." The reaper simmered down for a second before brimming with energy again. "Do we need to go to a training room for you to demonstrate something, or do you just want to talk about it?"

"The second one," I answered with a chuckle. "Which room should we have the meeting in? Yours or ours?"

"Team RWBY's room should suffice," offered Weiss. "We had Blake clean everything up last night and this morning as punishment for avoiding us half of the weekend."

When I glanced at Blake with an unasked question, she coughed and looked away awkwardly. "Just don't go messing up my hard work."

"Crime doesn't pay, Blakey!"

"Nora, that doesn't make sense," Ren sighed at his childhood friend while the rest of us laughed. We all promptly walked to RWBY's room. The dorm rooms weren't enormous in size, but Ruby and Yang sitting on the latter's bed meant there was still enough distance from person to person to not feel claustrophobia-inducing.

I felt a little peculiar about explaining something as odd as the Game to everybody present. I must've shown it on my face, because Blake looked over at me and said, "Relax. Show them the same way you showed me. Just change the party name first."

Weiss frowned a bit, clearly confused. "Party name? What is she talking about?"

Ignoring her question, I brought up the party menu and adjusted the name to something simple. Blake was right to tell me to do that, since giving Yang ammunition to tease us was never a good idea.

 **Invite these six people to party [Beacon friends]?**

"Alright, everybody, tell me what you see." Hitting the yes button, I leaned against a wall so I could see everyones' expressions. I must say that it was pretty funny to see them all surprised and looking down at something I couldn't directly see. Nora and Ruby recovered first and both pushed their fingers against the air, resulting in their names popping up on the list of party members. Yang, Pyrrha, and Ren followed suit, eyes flitting back and forth as they read what must've been a pretty lengthy text box.

Weiss was the only holdout, hand going back and forth as she struggled to comprehend what she was seeing. "What is this? Are you making us see illusions!?"

Nora leaned over and pat her on the shoulder. "Come on, Weiss-y, just hit yes and join the rest of us. We're all part of the Game now... whatever that is!"

When Weiss failed to respond, Nora grabbed her hand and clumsily directed it through the air. A moment later, 'Weiss Schnee' finished the roster and I had to give props to Nora for her accomplishment. "Guys, this is my Semblance. It lets me treat life like a game; or, rather, like I'm a game character. You guys must have a hundred questions, so ask away."

Yang raised her hand while still looking at her screen. "I've got one. It's calling us restricted users and telling us that you have a bunch of features we don't. How come we get the trial version?"

The answer didn't come from me, but from Ren instead. "That's likely because it's Jaune's Semblance. Aura, and by extension Semblances, are reflections of our souls. This is his soul, we're just getting a glimpse at it."

It was phrased better than I could've ever done, and I mouthed 'thank you' to show my appreciation. "Anybody else?"

"Yes, what are these stats?" I rattled off the descriptions as I understood them at Weiss's request, the heiress taking notes every step of the way. When I finished giving out the details she seemed a little dissatisfied. "Understanding myself as well as I do, most of these numbers make sense; but why is my charisma so low? It must be a mistaken measurement."

Not wanting to piss her off, I bit my cheek to stop a laugh from erupting. "The Game is usually right about those kinds of things. For example, I figured out why professor Port's stats are where they are just this morning. His intelligence, wisdom, and charisma are all pretty high, which makes sense because he's an experienced Huntsman; but his dexterity and constitution are both extremely low. Can you guess why?"

Nora chirped up, "is it 'cause he's old and fat? I can't even imagine him being able to run."

"Exactly, though I wish I had more data to back it up. I can't observe the other teachers yet."

"Why's that, Jaune?" Pyrrha had stopped fiddling with her screens, seeming to be happier when she was involved in the conversation. "Can you not see the stats of everyone?"

"Not exactly; if somebody is more than fifty levels above me, the only thing I can see is their name. Just so you guys know, Port is level sixty. You're all ju~st below him." Several of them had conflicted feelings about that, no doubt because they felt they could take him in a fight; if video games have taught me anything, though, it's that levels aren't everything.

Nora raised her hand. "About that fireball we saw you use against that Sky guy, did you learn that through the Game?"

"Pretty much. Remember when we all played Street Fighter in the dorm room? I used the game disc to learn the Hadouken."

Yang jumped up from the bed with a gasp. "I knew it looked familiar! How did you use the disc, by eating it?"

"No- well, maybe? Here, I'll show you." I opened up my inventory and brought out Final Fantasy XIII. Everyone present jumped in surpised at seeing the game case appear out of thin air. "Whoops, forgot to show you all that part. My bad."

I popped open the case and held the disc up for all of them to see. "Every game I touch counts as a Technical Machine, and absorbing them is how I learn new skills. Like this."

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill [Cure]?**

 _'Yes.'_ The disc shined brighter than the sun for a moment before shifting into orbs of light that converged into my chest.

 **You have learned the skill [Cure]!**

 **~Cure LV: 1 (Active) EXP: 0.0% AP cost: 20**

 **While not exactly a skill unique to the Final Fantasy franchise, many parties have been saved by the timely use of healing spells. Strive to become the ultimate white mage!**

 **The user heals a small amount of a target's HP, equal to (INT x 1.5). This skill may be chain cast up to 5 consecutive times to drastically reduce casting time, but the user cannot use any other active skills while doing so. Most minor wounds will heal over when Cure is cast.**

 **Cast time: 2 Seconds.**

 **Range: Single target up to 5 feet from the user.**

 **Cannot change target during chain cast.**

 **Will evolve to Cura at LV ?**

To my amusement, my friends mouths had officially fallen open. "And like that, I can officially heal people that are hurt. It's not the best spell, but the more I work at it the better it'll get."

"Wait, wait, wait," objected Weiss. "Aura-based medical care is extremely difficult, and is usually only conceivable with unique Semblances. You're saying you can spontaneously heal people now!?"

"Yep, though the skill made it a point to say that it was 'minor wounds', so I guess that means small cuts and bruises." In all honesty I was a bit torn about using my Final Fantasy TM on a heal skill, but the fact that it would evolve to Cura (and potentially Curaga down the line) meant that it truly would come in handy. I'd just have to find a way to grind the skill. "Something you should know is that the Game only allows me to learn one skill per franchise. Just now I learned Cure, but I could've chosen an attack spell like Fire. Since I can't learn every skill under the sun, it all boils down to 'what skill will I actually need in the future?'"

"But fearless leader, doesn't that mean you could've learned a lightning spell instead?" Nora pouted a bit, almost looking like she was gonna cry. 'Observe' showed me it was part act, part earnest. "We would've made a great tag team since my Semblance lets me absorb electricity and power up from it!"

"...Sorry?" I didn't have a good answer for her, so I walked over and pat her head as if she were one of my sisters. "But since I can heal you, that means you might be able to smash more things even when you get hurt. Is that okay?"

Sniffle. "...I guess."

 **Your closeness with Nora and Ren have increased by 1!**

Ruby spoke up as I stepped away from the ginger. "Even with the 'one skill' part, it really does seem like a Semblance that's able to do almost anything."

I rolled my eyes. "Anything except make sense from a gamer standpoint. If you all can't gain experience, why give me a menu option that supposedly lets me adjust who gets how much in the party? My only quote 'controls' option is to invert my camera controls, and I don't even want to _imagine_ how that would work."

I almost tacked on the part about Gamer's Body and Mind, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it would lead to a bunch of questions that I honestly didn't have the answers to. Also, it was better to be safe than invite a pity party about the fact that I didn't need sleep anymore.

"Can I ask why you showed us all of this? I don't understand why this was a big production." Contrary to her phrasing, I could tell that Weiss wasn't trying to be rude. I cupped my chin as I thought about her question.

"I did make it a production, didn't I? Sorry. Anyways, the reason I brought all of this up is because I might need help making decisions about my skills and many other things in the future. As a friend and team leader, I just thought that you all should know the kinds of things that I can do."

 **Your closeness with Ruby and Pyrrha have increased by 2!**

 **Your closeness with Weiss/Blake/Yang/Nora/Ren have increased by 1!**

 _'Why the difference in numbers?'_ My thought process was interrupted by Yang playfully punching me on the shoulder. "It's all good to us, Gamer boy. Hit me up if you're having trouble picking between skills, 'cause I know a thing or two about games myself."

"Indeed," followed Pyrrha as she put her hand on my un-punched shoulder. "It makes me happy that you're relying on us, so let me know if you have any troubles in the future."

"Thanks. I mean it." I honestly did, too. Knowing I had their support despite the bizarre nature of my Semblance put me at ease. This meeting also served the purpose of showing Blake that our friends were open-minded, and by the small smile I saw on her face she seemed to have gotten the message. At least, I hoped so.

That night, I felt like I made great progress on Pyrrha's song choice and my own. Nora's was still tough to do consistently, much to my dismay.

Tuesday turned out to be a pretty big day for me. Professor Peach's class helped me earn another INT point, which I was always grateful for. I guess it was due to her moderate teaching style when compared to boisterous Port and energetic Oobleck, but I never felt lost when she taught. Now if only she would teach the class in person. We received notice that there would be a field trip to Forever Fall the following Wednesday, though she didn't mention what we'd be doing there.

After lunch was Combat class, with a rule change: a match was lost at fifteen percent instead of twenty-five. The first duel was Pyrrha versus Cardin, and man was that satisfying to watch. It was completely one-sided, with Cardin trying and failing to score a single hit on her as she systematically picked him apart. When the match finished and Pyrrha was declared the winner, she received quite the round of applause from the RWBYJNR section of the stands.

 **Your closeness with Cardin has decreased by 1!**

 _'K but Y tho?'_ You know I'm confused when I'm resorting to shorthand in my own head.

After that was Nora v. Yang (Yang won due to a last-moment power boost what I suspected was her Semblance), Ren v. Russell (went to Ren, but with a good showing from Russell), and finally-

"The next match will be Jaune Arc versus Ruby Rose."

When Professor Goodwitch called out the match, Ruby and I looked at each other with mutually determined expressions. We both knew what the other was capable of thanks to the Grimm hunt we did, so there wasn't a need to feel each other out. With a nod we proceeded to the center, both already armed and ready for the fight.

As soon as we got the signal to start, Ruby put as much distance between us as she could and began peppering me with bullets as she ran circles around me. I managed to block most of them, but one shot managed to hit me dead in the leg.

 **HP: 605, AP: 765**

Obviously, I stood no chance of winning if I failed to close the distance. The issue was how slow I was, so I while I remained on defense I allotted a few SP to my DEX.

 **DEX: 12 - 16**

The moment I saw her take out her ammo cartidge to reload, I took off as fast as my legs allowed. While not a massive gain, I still felt a noticeable difference in my running speed as I charged at Ruby. Sensing that she wouldn't get a proper shot off before I got in range, she shifted her weapon from rifle to scythe mode and swung at my head, forcing me to duck as the blade sailed over my head. Crocea Mors slid along the ground and sparked a demon fang, which Ruby quickly sidestepped as she made an attempt at cleaving my legs.

 **AP: 690**

I hopped over it like a jump rope, but before I could counter she started to retreat. Not willing to give her the chance, I used my left hand to fire a Scorpion's Spear. The Aura rope-and-knife fired directly from my palm, flying straight at the Reaper and forcing her to raise her scythe to block it.

 **AP:** **665**

At that moment, what we both expected was for the scythe to block my spear and allow her to retreat. I'd be in trouble, of course, but that's how the match-up works when you use a traditional sword and board style.

Instead, when the knife connected with the blade end of her scythe it _sank into the scythe_ and I felt the rope get taut. There was an almost comical moment of pause as Ruby and I processed what just happened. Then, grinning from ear to ear, I pulled on the rope. The scythe slid from her hands and began flying through the air. For a brief moment I dared to think that I could win by disarming her and tipping the fight in my favor.

Leave it to Ruby to prove me wrong.

Without a moment of hesitation, she activated her speed Semblance and bolted directly towards me. Just when the scythe was about five feet from me, she managed to wrap her hands around the trigger of her baby. Keep in mind that thanks to where my knife connected with her scythe, it was basically flying with the sharp end pointed straight at me.

Ruby returned my grin and pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit my face mere moments before Ruby turned into a blur. Crescent Rose, now free from my grip, whipped around and caught me by the ankles, taking my feet out and sending me onto my back. As I made to stand, the business end of her baby was pointed right at my face and Ruby uttered a single word. "Surrender."

 **HP: 605 - 463, AP: 665 - 239**

Yeah, I was done for the day. "I give up."

"Mr. Arc has forfeit," called out Goodwitch. "The winner is Ruby Rose."

Ruby put her scythe away and offered me a hand up. "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?"

"Only my pride, Ruby." I accepted her hand and stood up. I'd lost, but I couldn't be too upset about it. We had the next four years together, so I'd get to fight her plenty of times. "I have to say that you're crazy for trying to pull that off."

"Maybe, but it worked out for me." She giggled a bit when I scoffed.

We got our reviews, basically telling me to think things through before committing to them, and the class finished after a few more duels. The teams went their separate ways when the bell rang, and that was when I remembered that I needed to return 'The Great Hunt' to the library and Blake's mystery book back to her. My afternoon decided, I returned to the dorm room to retrieve the former book and went to the library.

Silently praying that I wouldn't be thrown around this time.

X

 **Hey, this chapter didn't take two weeks to write for once.** **Surprise, surprise.**

 **I'm already anticipating a 'this seems like filler' response, but let me assure you that this chapter was necessary. Jaune has shiny, new toys, but lacks the battle experience to use them effectively against people; hence, his proper thrashing by Madam Rose. There's also bits of foreshadowing to pick up on, but I'll remain silent on what.**

 **And don't worry, the original party name _will_ get brought up again. Count on that.**

 **For those of you who like seeing numbers, Jaune's current stats are down below this note.**

 **Please consider leaving a review. For now, GG!**

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Newbie Hero**

 **LV: 14 EXP: 13.1%**

 **HP: 630/630**

 **AP: 840/840**

 **STR: 19**

 **DEX: 16**

 **CON: 21**

 **INT: 17**

 **WIS: 17**

 **CHA: 26 (2)**

 **SP: 11**

 **Friends List- Arranged by closeness**

 **Ruby Rose -38- Good Friend (?)**

 **Pyrrha Nikos -34- Partner (?)**

 **Nora Valkyrie -29- Fearless Leader**

 **Lie Ren -28- Friend and Leader**

 **Yang Xiao Long -24- Friend**

 **Blake Belladonna -17- Friend**

 **Weiss Schnee -7- Acquaintance**

 **Sky Lark -6- Acquaintance**

 **Cardin Winchester -(-16)- (Expletive Deleted)**


	12. Chapter 12 - He who Flies Justly

**A/N:** **Oh noes, a small chapter!**

 **Don't worry, this one definitely _isn't_ filler. What happens here is important enough to leave it on its own.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

The library was just about full with students studying or making monitor calls to their family, but a thorough search revealed that Blake wasn't there at the moment. Thinking that she'd probably be showing up soon, I went to the fantasy section and grabbed books three and four of 'The Wheel of Time' and sat myself at one of the few empty tables to read. Suddenly, a text box popped up in the corner of my vision.

 _Yang (to all): Testing the chat, feel free to ignore me._

 _'I should've figured somebody would mess around with it.'_ I didn't mind, of course. Yang could figure out some things that I might've missed, so she was free to do what she wanted. I reached up to close the box.

 _Yang: Check_.

I rolled my eyes and began reading book three, 'The Dragon Reborn.'

 _Yang: CHECK._

I absentmindly closed it out.

 _Yang (Shout): **CHECK'S IN THE MAIL!**_

Unlike the previous messages, this one came with an obnoxiously loud "Ding!" that almost made me jump out of my skin. After calming my heart down a bit, I typed my own message into the chat.

 _Jaune: Was that one really necessary?_

 _Yang: No, but watching Weiss flip out right next to me made it worth it. Was there a loud noise on your end, Jaune?_

 _Jaune: Yes, so please don't do it again. There's an ignore chat option and I'm not afraid to use it._

 _Yang: Sorry! Rubes and I have been fiddling with the game for a while. Protip: do **not** mess with the invert camera options. When I turned my head left my vision went right, meaning I was basically seeing out of the back of my head._

 _Nora: Can confirm, it made following Oobleck impossible._

 _Blake: I'm gonna use that ignore thing if this is what I have to look forward to all day._

 _Jaune: Before you do, Blake, I have that book you left behind a few days ago. I'm sitting in the library if you need it back._

 _Blake: On the way._

Selecting 'ignore chat' so that I wouldn't get any more pop-ups, I settled into my reading in peace. Naturally I didn't get very far, because soon there was a presence standing to my right. Sky had one hand up in a friendly wave and the other holding a textbook. "Hey, Jaune. Mind if I sit here? Practically everywhere else is taken today."

"Go ahead, man. Which class are you studying for?"

"Oobleck's. We have Faunus Revolution stuff coming up tomorrow or Friday and I need to freshen up on it." He pulled out a chair and sat with a heavy thump. "I wish I could study in my dorm, but having three loud roomies means that isn't happening."

I chuckled. "I understand completely. I only have one loud teammate, but she's... Nora. Pretty sure she's worth all of yours put together."

"Point taken." We shared a laugh before he turned his attention to his studies. I observed him, just as I observed everybody these days...

I'm not a creeper, okay?

 **Sky Lark**

 **Title: The Timid Bird.**

 **Level: 31 EXP: ErMac**

 **HP: 1050/1050**

 **AP: 1400/1400**

 **STR: 35**

 **DEX: 25**

 **CON: 35**

 **INT: 41**

 **WIS: 25**

 **CHA: 21**

 _'Huh, his INT and CHA have both gone up one. Kudos to him.'_ Nodding in approval of my acquaintance's growth, I started to read the prologue once more.

 _Tap tap_

I suppressed my groan and turned to look at the person tapping my shoulder, who turned out to be Blake. Reaching into my inventory under the table, I retrieved her book and handed it to her. "Here you go. I promise I didn't look at the title."

"Good." Blake accepted it and tucked it under her arm. As she turned away, I saw her eyes focus on something under her nose. "For the love of-"

She stopped, her gaze shifting from annoyed to curious as she examined the textbox. "Jaune, Nora's invited our team to some kind of performance?"

"Performance? I'm singing a few songs for my team this weekend, but it isn't anything too grand."

She gave me an inquisitive look. "What songs are you singing?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but quickly thought better of it. "Has Nora mentioned the song names?"

"No."

"Then it'll be a secret until the show," I replied with a smile. "It's happening on Saturday. I'll let everybody know when I've decided on the time and place."

The corners of her lips lifted a little in what could've been a smirk or a smile. "Seems interesting. See you later, Jaune."

She spun and disappeared, footsteps inaudible over the noise the other students were making in the library. I watched her leave and then turned to read once more, but I saw Sky chuckling a bit. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, really. It's just..." Sky took a second to find his words. "What's it like being close to six of the best looking girls in our year?"

"What?" I wasn't playing dumb; I honestly had no clue what he was getting at. "So I'm friends with another team, that isn't really a big deal."

"You don't see it?" Sky tapped a pencil to his chin. "Alright, do something for me: close your eyes and think carefully about each one of the girls that you're friends with. When you do that, I think you'll see why some people would be jealous of you."

"Oookay? Just don't mess with me while I have my eyes closed." Doing as instructed, I shut my eyes and contemplated the people around me. _'First is Pyrrha, of course, with those emerald eyes and stunning red hair. She's helpful and always polite, almost to a fault, and has the fitness to prove she could win four tournaments in a row. She's a great partner for anyone to have.'_

 _'Next is Nora, the very avatar of energy. She's cute and powerful, and comes with a mile of caution tape that says 'property of Ren.' After that is... Ruby, my first actual friend here. Yeah she's younger than us, but we get along great. She's crazy good with that scythe, and her silver eyes light up whenever she gets excited.'_

 _'Her sister Yang is drop-dead gorgeous and she knows it. I think she's one of the only girls I know who can flirt and make it both an invitation **and** a threat. She's even stronger than Nora is- by the way, how was I ever supposed to beat her in a fight when Ruby tore me apart? I'm so glad I fought Sky instead. Anyways, moving on.'_

 _'Weiss is the epitome of elegance, though it comes with a side of frostiness. She isn't awful, though; just rough around the edges. I think Ruby will manage to sand those rough parts down a bit. Note to self: be careful not to call her Snow Angel again. Last, but not least, is Blake. The biggest mystery of the girls by far, though that probably just adds to her charm... as long as she doesn't choke me again.'_

Running through the list I realized that all of these girls were grade A beauties, and each in their own way. I'd noticed them before, of course, but I hadn't actually processed what it looked liked to have two guys surrounded by six incredible women. Opening my eyes, I said, "Okay, I think I see what you're getting at. But what does-

A realization hit me right then and there. "Is that why Cardin's been a pain this whole time!?"

"Yep. He basically told us on Monday that a, quote, 'blonde twerp like him shouldn't be surrounded by all those girls. They should be around a true man like me!'" Sky even put air quotes around the 'true man' part. "Personally it makes him look petty; like, I would've understood it if it was our theory of 'he hates Pyrrha, so he hates you'. But just being jealous about who you hang around with? That's just sad."

"No kidding." I groaned and put my face in my hands. To think that I had a target on my back just because I was around gorgeous girls! "It's not like I'm stopping him from approaching any of them, you know. The only person I'd say is off limits is Ruby, and that's only because she has a big sis that could probably knock him through a mountain."

"That's how I see it, too. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news."

"Nah, you're good. Thanks for explaining it to me, Sky." I put my fist out and he bumped it.

 **Your closeness with Sky has increased by 2!**

I got an idea. "The show that Blake and I were talking about, do you wanna watch, too? I promise you that the last song I sing will have you rolling in laughter; guaranteed or your money back."

"I'll think about it, as long as you don't actually charge for admission," Sky replied with a chuckle. The conversation over, we both returned to our reading. Fortunately for me, there were no further interruptions and I was able to read in peace.

Life continued without incident until Friday. My music practice was going well, I got C's in the quizzes that Port and Oobleck gave to us on Wednesday, and I wound up not having a match in Goodwitch's Thursday class.

Yang discovered that the BGM function actually lets you play music that nobody else could hear, with the audio quality of a speaker system held somewhere over your head. With it, she and Ruby were actually able to stay awake in Port's class, although the strength of the former's headbanging led me to believe that she wasn't hearing a word he said. The only catch was that you had to have heard the song since joining the game, otherwise your music list was empty; it was an annoying detail of an otherwise decently programmed feature, so we all just rolled with it.

As a side note, Nora made me swear to not cheat and use the function to help tune myself during the performance. Oh well.

Nora was leaning over the table during lunch on Friday. "So! There we were, in the middle of the night..."

"It was day."

"We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"They were beowolves."

"Dozens of them!"

"Two of 'em."

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" Nora finished her tale excitedly to an audience that had varied levels of enthusiasm.

Ren sighed. "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."

Yang laughed. "Hey, I thought it was fun to listen to. We could-"

"OW!"

The attention of everyone present turned to a table behind me, revealing Cardin Winchester pulling the ears of a fellow student. Rather than normal ears, however, they were a pair of brown rabbit ears. They belonged to a girl named Velvet, who I'd seen sitting in Oobleck's class. Cardin was laughing as he yanked on her appendages while Russell and Dove laughed at her plight. Sky was the only member of CRDL not laughing, instead having his face in his hands as if to block out the sight.

Across the table from me, Ruby bristled at the display. "That bully! Where does he get off doing that?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Atrocious. I can't stand people like him."

Blake began gripping the table with both hands. "He's not the only one..."

I looked back and forth between Velvet and Blake, feeling the truth slowly dawn on me. _'That's why Blake wears a bow... Because of people like Cardin, who discriminate against the Faunus.'_

Rage was starting to build within me. It's one thing to witness a horrible act like Cardin's, but it was another thing entirely to be able to delve into the minds of those involved.

 **Velvet Scarlatina**

 **Emotion(s): Pain, resignation**

 **Cardin Winchester**

 **Emotion(s): Amusement**

The pain he was causing to her, it was a _game_ to him. A sick, twisted show that Velvet and Blake were all too familiar with. I felt Gamer's Mind do its best at calming me down, but it wasn't working that well. It quickly shifted to how to do my bad idea _properly_. Under the table, I retrieved two apples that I'd slipped into my inventory the first week. Both felt just as fresh as the day I stored them, which was just fine with me. "Yang, how's your throwing arm?"

She seemed surprised at being addressed, but answered anyways. "Better than yours, why?"

"Because you're my back-up." Placing both apples on the table, I stood up and walked towards the source. None of them paid me any mind, letting me get a good look at the group's emotions. As I had noticed earlier, the only CRDL member not feeling amusement was-

 **Sky Lark**

 **Emotion(s): Shame**

"Ow! That hurts!" Velvet seemed to wilt a bit as she slowed her struggles. "Please, stop..."

"I told you it was real!" Cardin yanked on them again as Russell called her a freak.

Finally within range, I reached forward and grabbed Cardin's offending wrist. All noise within the cafeteria ceased as everybody took in my actions; even Velvet herself seemed stunned into silence. Keeping my voice even, a feat possible only due to Gamer's Mind, I looked Cardin straight in the eyes and said, "Let her go, Cardin."

He had no such poise, glaring at me with every inch of anger that he could muster. "What, not satisfied with your harem so now you come to try and save the freak? You must be a freak yourself, Jauney Boy; that, or just plain stupid."

I paid his words no mind. "Let. her. go."

"...Gladly." Cardin released her ears and yanked his arm back in one motion, which would've thrown me off-balance if I hadn't let go. Velvet immediately retreated a few steps, but, to my surprise, didn't flee the scene and instead massaged her ears as she took in the scene. Cardin, looking only at me, almost growled. "I've been looking forward to putting you down since day one, Arc."

"And why's that, Cardin? Please, explain to our audience what I did wrong." I gestured to the rest of the lunchroom without breaking eye contact. "Because the last time I checked, you and I haven't even talked before today.

Cardin spared only a glance when I gestured, registering that we had an audience before looking back at me. "You're right, we haven't. Maybe you can explain something to me: how did a little blonde shit like you become the leader of a team? 'Cause I only see a weakling standing in front of me."

"I wish I knew, Cardin; I actually wish I had any idea about what went on in Professor Ozpin's mind when he made me team leader." I openly shrugged. "Also, at least I have a win in Professor Goodwitch's class. You're 'O' for two."

His knuckles popped as he curled them into a fist. "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be, Arc."

I took a deep breath. "Here's the thing, Cardin: I don't care. If you're going to swing, then swing. I'll probably go down in a few hits. If you aren't going to swing, then we're done here. I just wanted to stop you from doing something vile to another student."

I waited a few moments, but rather than swing at me Cardin stood there shaking in anger. Deciding that he must be done, I turned around and took a step back towards my table.

 **You sense murderous intent!**

That was the only warning I got, but it was enough for me to spin around and duck under Cardin's fist. I retreated a step to get some spacing between us as Cardin drew himself up to his full height. At this point, I was expecting one or both of the apples I gave to Yang to smack him.

Instead, I got to witness Sky sucker punching him from his left.

 _Bam!_

Cardin's head whipped to the right from the impact, sending him backwards until he caught himself on a table. Admittedly in a bit of shock, I gave Sky a look of confusion and gratefulness. "Thanks?"

 **Sky Lark**

 **LV: 31 - 32**

 **Title: The Timid Bird - The Resolute Bird**

 **CHA: 21 - 24**

Sky flashed me a wry smile before focusing on Cardin again. "He had it coming."

Cardin recovered his senses and glowered at his teammate. "You... You little _traitor_!"

A loud boom rang out through the cafeteria as the doors slammed open. "That's quite enough, students!"

Glynda Goodwitch came striding in, cape billowing as she held her wand at the ready. "Any further and I shall have to discipline everyone involved. Separate. Now."

Cardin gave me one last glare before huffing and turning away. I was more than happy to comply with the order and walked back to my team with Velvet and Sky at my side. Goodwitch only departed once we were a suitable distance from each other. When we got close there was a bit of an awkward silence from most of the student body, but I could see with 'Observe' that my friends were quite pleased with my actions.

 **Your closeness with Pyrrha/Nora/Ren/Ruby/Weiss/Yang have increased by 1!**

 **Your closeness with Blake and Sky has increased by 3!**

 **Your closeness with Velvet has increased by 5!**

 **By acting to right an injustice, your CHA has increased by 1!**

Seeing that last notification prompted me to address the girl herself. "Are you okay? Things got pretty heated there."

Velvet nodded and gave a short bow. Her voice has a unique accent when she spoke. "Yes, I-I'm fine. Thank you for your help. Um..."

She gave a furtive look towards Sky, who rubbed the back of his head before bowing it towards her and keeping it there. It surprised her as well as myself, but before we could question him he spoke up. "I'm sorry for not standing up for you. I knew that what Cardin was doing was wrong, but I couldn't muster the courage to stop him until Jaune stepped up. Please forgive me."

RWBY and JNPR looked between Velvet and Sky, none of us quite sure what her reaction would be. After a moment of taking his words to heart, Velvet gave him a soft smile. "I don't think you need to apologize. You just punched your teammate, so I feel like that showed your honest feelings. Please raise your head."

He obeyed, giving her a sheepish smile before sticking his hand out. "I'm glad that you're not mad at me. The name's Sky, by the way. Sky Lark."

"Velvet Scarlatina." She shook his hand before turning back to me. "And you are...?"

"Jaune Arc, and these are my teammates and friends." We did a round of introductions despite the fact that some of them knew her from class, though none of them seemed to mind. As Velvet went around the group for a moment, I saw Blake look over at me and mouth 'thank you.'

Not gonna lie, it made me feel good about what I did.

"Well, it was nice to meet all of you. My team's still expecting me back in our dorm room, but I'll see you in Doctor Oobleck's class. Goodbye!" Waving farewell, Velvet left the cafeteria with a smile. I took my seat at the end of the JNPR row and Sky sat beside me. He hadn't been formally introduced like Velvet had, but the group seemed to have accepted his presence. I felt that I had to broach the obvious subject.

"So, Sky, I appreciate the assist there; however, you just decked your team leader out of principle. What are you gonna do now?"

"Honestly, I feel like going to hide in a corner somewhere." He blew out some air as he thought about it. "The sad part is I still live with them. Still, I made my bed, so it's time to sleep in it."

Nora walked around me and gave him a hearty slap on the back. "D'aw, don't you worry about that. You can just sleep in our room until things get sorted out! And if Cardin gives you trouble, we'll help you break his legs!"

"Uh... thanks?" Sky seemed genuinely uncomfortable with that last idea. "If it boils down to it I might ask to sleep over a night or two, but outside of that I'm gonna have to suck it up and deal with the consequences. I appreciate the offer, regardless."

Sky stuck around us for the rest of lunch, and walked with us as we went to Oobleck's history class. He was mostly content to listen to us talk instead of contributing, but not a soul complained about it. Personally, I was just grateful to have another guy friend.

As Sky said, he had made his bed, just like I made mine that day. What I didn't expect was for my bed to flip my life end-over-end.

X

 **Here we see the benefit of Jaune's improved self-confidence: he's attracting other people to his side, and somebody he fought against no less! Sky followed his example and grew a bit of a spine, developing his Charisma in the process.**

 **On a minor note, I gave my version of Cardin a jealousy reason for his actions 'cause come on... look at Jaune's friends here! All hotties.**

 **Until next time, GG!**


	13. Chapter 13 - Magic Hands

**A/N:** **Aaaand we're back! Sorry for the delay.**

 **Muse: I have him in a vice grip writing One New Message.**

 **It's true. GL; HF!**

X

 **You sense malicious intent!**

Do you know what it's like to have the guy sitting behind you alternate giving dirty looks between you and your new friend Sky? 'Cause that's what I was putting up with from Cardin.

Oblivious to my silent plight, Oobleck was once again zooming around the room. "Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution--more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie. While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!"

The good Doctor took a moment to sip from his coffee, which 'Observe' told me was decaf, much to my confusion. "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

Multiple hands around the room went up slowly, including Velvet's. Sky, who'd decided to sit next to her, said something that I couldn't hear from where I was. Velvet didn't respond verbally, instead putting her free hand over his for a moment. It was a strangely tender moment to be having in the middle of class; but Oobleck, who couldn't possibly have missed it, decided to wait until their hands separated to continue speaking. "Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence! Just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?"

Weiss stood up for a moment. "The battle at Fort Castle!"

Oobleck nodded. "Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Suddenly, I felt something thunk the back of my head. It didn't even come close to hurting, but I turned in my seat to face the guilty party almost on reflex. Unfortunately, this reflex cost me, as Oobleck promptly materialized in front of my seat. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

 _'Crap! I have no clue!'_ "Uhhhh... The answer... The advantage... that the Faunus..." To my right I spied Pyrrha making some kind of gesture over her eyes, but it wasn't getting me any closer to the truth. "...had over that guy's stuff..."

A small text box came to my rescue.

 _Blake (W/ Jaune): Night vision. Most Faunus can see just fine in the dark._

"...Was night vision! They can see better than humans at night." I smiled at the assist, but made sure to keep looking at the professor so it didn't look like I was cheating.

Blake herself stood up to elaborate further. "General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured."

"Excellent answer, both of you! Most excellent!" Oobleck seemed genuinely pleased as he continued with his lecture. I could practically feel Cardin's frustration growing behind me, clearly pissed that I'd managed to avoid looking bad. I opened my party chat keyboard on the desk in front of me, stealthily typing as the professor prattled on.

 _Jaune (W/ Blake): Thanks for the save. I owe you for that one._

 **Your closeness with Blake has increased by 1!**

 _Blake (W/ Jaune): Careful, I'll hold you to it._

 _Jaune (W/ Blake): Too late, already said it. Although I thought I had the chat ignored?_

 _Blake (W/ Jaune): Who knows?_ _It's your Semblance._

Shrugging to myself, I focused on the speeding teacher lest I fall behind again.

After class was over and dinner was consumed...

"Allllright, lady and gents! Jaune-Jaune here is performing tomorrow, so here's how things are gonna go down!" Nora jumped onto her bed and stared down at the rest of team JNPR with a manic gleam in her eyes. Pyrrha and I both glanced at Ren, who shrugged in a way that we knew meant 'it's Nora; roll with it.'

"Pyrrha," the ginger continued, "the two of us are going grocery shopping first thing tomorrow morning! We're grabbing everything that we need for tuna salad sandwiches and pancakes, as well as some soda and chips!"

Pyrrha raised her hand like a student sitting in class would. "You've mentioned tuna salad twice now. Why that specifically?"

"Eh, I've been in a mood for it. Renny! You're on food prep duty when we get back, so keep those arms ready to go at a moment's notice. And Jaune, you'll be conducting a sound test tonight, if you can."

"But I'm... not even using any equipment besides the guitar."

"Then you better get some more practice in, buckeroo! Lastly, and _definitely_ most important, we-" Nora was interrupted by a knock at the door. She jumped off the bed and walked over to answer it. "It's late! Who dares disturb Team JNPR's strategy meeting..."

The last sentence was spoken as she opened the door, but even though we could only see her back we noticed that she seemed to deflate a bit. After a short second, she turned around and stepped to one side, allowing us to see Sky through the entrance. "Fearless leader, I know I said the whole 'spend the night' suggestion on a whim, but could we...?"

I opened my mouth to ask what she meant, but my flapper quickly shut as we all got a good look at Sky: he was sporting a rather large bruise under his left eye and was gingerly holding his left arm with his right. Behind him were a couple bags that had clothes sticking out of the zippers, seemingly forced in in some kind of hurry, and the bags were tied to his right leg; apparently, he'd dragged them here as opposed fo carrying them. His hair was disheveled, a massive departure from his usual slick-back style, and was swelling quite a bit on the side...

Quite frankly, he looked like hell.

 **Sky Lark**

 **HP:** **423** **/1050**

 **AP:** **115** **/1400**

 **Emotion(s):** **Pained.**

 **Status:** **Minor concussion, facial bruising, dislocated left** **shoulder fatigued.** **Aura recovering after an Aura Break.**

 _'Sweet Monty, why is he-'_

Cardin.

My hands clenched into fists as I came to understand what happened. Cardin had called Sky a traitor earlier, and must've decided to lash out behind closed doors. That complete asshole!

I walked into the hallway and grabbed one of the bags on the floor, untied it from the rope, and used my head to gesture into the room. "Come on in, man. Nora, can you go check the freezer in the commons room for an ice pack? We should get his head swelling down."

Nora sprinted down the hall to obey as Ren came out and grabbed the other bag. Slowly, I walked Sky over to my bed and had him sit down. "Easy does it, Sky, just relax. I can already figure out what happened, but I have to ask why you didn't go to the nurse's office."

"I did," he answered as he rested his head against the wall, "but the door was locked so they must've been out. Cardin wrecked my scroll, too, so I couldn't call any of the teachers."

Sky reached into his right pants pocket and pulled out what _used_ to be a scroll, kept in one place solely by the plastic bag that contained it. "Tomorrow, I'll try to find a teacher and report what happened. I'm not familiar with all of Beacon's rules, but I'm-"

He stopped for a second as he gritted his teeth, clearly feeling a flare of pain. "...but I'm pretty sure that we can't be evicted from our own dorm rooms."

I turned to look at my partner. "Pyrrha, can you-?"

"On it." She quickly pulled out her own scroll, pressing a few buttons before waiting for the call to go through. It helped that all of the teachers scroll ID's were given to all of the students in case an emergency occurred.

 _Doooot. Doooot. Doo-_ "Hello? It's awfully late to be calling me, Ms. Nikos." It was Glynda Goodwitch on the line. Thankfully, she sounded more concerned than annoyed from where I sat. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes, Professor. Sky Lark just showed up at our dorm room. He's clearly been assaulted and I feel that you should examine him. According to him, the infirmary was closed when he checked."

"That would be because the head nurse had some personal matters to attend to. I'll be there shortly."

"Thank you, ma'am." The call ended, so Pyrrha put her scroll away and nodded at me. "Anything else, Jaune?"

"No, that was perfect. Thanks, Pyrrha." I offered her a small smile that she returned. Nora returned just a moment later, ice pack in one hand and a bucket of ice in the other. She set the bucket down and handed the pack to Sky, who took it gratefully and set it on his swelling.

The room was enveloped in a deafening silence as the four of JNPR fought to maintain composure. I, myself wanted nothing more than to follow Nora's earlier suggestion and break Cardin's legs, but doing anything before Goodwitch got there would just make matters worse. Fortunately, the professor arrived within minutes and immediately began to examine Sky. "Bruises, an injured arm... what happened, Mr. Lark?"

Sky glanced at me, clearly looking for support. After I nodded my head, he took a deep breath and began explaining. "Professor, do you remember that fight during lunch?"

"Of course I do."

"Well, Cardin decided to... punish me for taking Jaune and Velvet's side earlier. As soon as Oobleck's class was over, I was dragged back to the dorm room where he and Russell beat the tar out of me; Dove was there, too, but didn't do anything besides shove some of my stuff in the bags right next to me."

I lifted one of the mentioned bags so Goodwitch could see what he meant. She acknowledged it with a curt nod and silently urged him to continue. "Once they were done hitting me, Cardin told me I wasn't gonna be allowed back into the room and had Dove tie the bags to my leg since I couldn't carry them. After finding the infirmary locked, I came here, and... that's it."

"I see." Her lips had formed a rather deep frown, but she was managing to keep her voice even. "Let me assure you that your team's actions will not go unpunished. For the moment, however, please excuse me as I feel your injured arm."

Sky wordlessly nodded, so she carefully picked it up and felt along his joints from top to bottom. The hiss of pain he let out served only to deepen my anger towards Cardin. "It's dislocated at the shoulder. Your Aura should be able to heal the rest of your wounds, but I need to reset the bone here so it doesn't get worse."

"Yes ma'am. I-I'm ready when you are." Goodwitch grabbed one of the shirts that was sticking out of his bag and made him put it into his mouth. He bit down on it, and there was a silent countdown.

Three, two, one...

 _Crack!_

" **Mmmm!** " His body was clenched tight as Goodwitch forced his arm away from its faulty spot and shoved it back into its socket. After a few moments the pain seemed to fade, and Sky let the shirt fall out of his mouth as he groaned a bit. "Ooow. Here's to hoping I don't have to deal with that again anytime soon.

"Indeed, Mr. Lark." A ghost of a smile appeared on the professor's face before she wiped it off. "The rest of your wounds will heal on their own. Rest for the next few days. If you feel that you need to miss class on Monday, let one of the staff know ahead of time. Mr. Arc, can I trust your team to watch over him while I deal with the rest of team CRDL?"

I nodded. "Of course, ma'am. We'll do everything that we can."

 **Your closeness with Glynda and Sky have increased by 2!**

"Speaking of 'everything that we can do...'" Nora's voice grabbed the attention of all those present as she tapped her pointer finger to her head in thought. "Jaune, can't you heal people now? You said something about cuts and bruises, so..."

 _'...Oh. I didn't even think about that.'_ I facepalmed for a brief moment before crouching really close to Sky's spot on the bed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Professor Goodwitch arch an eyebrow, but she didn't say a word as I stuck a hand out to Sky. "Sky, I'm gonna try something. Tell me what you feel."

"Huh?" Ignoring his confusion, I closed my eyes and focused on the Cure spell. I felt my Aura ripple throughout my body before reaching out to his body. It was a much calmer process than using the Hadouken, and chain-casting it was simply holding the connection a bit longer as opposed to reusing the skill from nothing. As the skill described, I could use the spell a combined five times before the connection cut off automatically.

 **AP: 840 - 715**

 **Sky Lark**

 **HP: 423 -** **553**

The color of the bruise seemed a bit lighter, and the swelling on his head began to recede. I felt happy to see it working, and dove straight into a second use of Cure-

 **AP: 715 - 590**

 **Sky Lark**

 **HP: 553- 683**

-And then a third use-

 **AP: 590 - 465**

 **Sky Lark**

 **HP: 683 - 813**

 **The skill level of [Cure] has increased by one!**

-before finally finishing with the fourth use.

 **AP: 465 - 340**

 **Sky Lark**

 **HP: 813 - 943**

The bruises (as I Cured him, I'd felt the presence of two bruises on his torso for a total of three) and head swelling were all but gone, with Sky's face returning to its normal pink color. I stood up and watched with amusement as he began feeling his own body with his hands, eyes wide with disbelief. "Dude, wha-? How? What did you do to me?"

"Like Nora said, I healed you. How do you feel?"

"How do I feel?" Slowly, he rose from the bed and gave his body a shake, testing out each limb as he thought about it. "I still feel a little sore from the shoulder reset thing, but outside of that I feel pretty good! Holy crap, man!"

With a spring to his step, he brought me into a bro hug that admittedly caught me off guard. "Thank you! I don't know how you did it, but I feel ten times better!"

 **Your closeness with Sky has increased by 2!**

 **Your closeness with Pyrrha/Ren/Nora/Glynda have increased by 1!**

"Mr. Arc." Goodwitch chose that moment to speak up, causing the bro hug to separate on the spot as I snapped to attention. While I still couldn't 'observe' her, it didn't take a Semblance or Skill to see the genuine surprise on her face. "I have to ask: how were you able to do that?"

"It's, uh..." Telling a teacher that my powers came from video games felt silly. "That... was a part of my Semblance, Professor."

"The same Semblance that allows you to use your Aura in the unique attacks you've displayed in class?"

"Yes ma'am."

"I see." She made no further comment on the matter, but I had the sinking suspicion that it would be coming up again soon. "Mr. Lark, please do rest like I instructed you to before. However, seeing as you're in a much better position than you were a few minutes ago, I expect you to attend every class next week. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, ma'am." The smile on Sky's face was a little goofy, no doubt due to his sudden recovery. Professor Goodwitch bid us all a good night and disappeared. I forced Sky to sleep in my bed since I'd be staying up anyways, and JNPR soon retired to get ready for Saturday.

As Pyrrha's scroll alarm went off at six A.M. to wake her and Nora up, my own scroll buzzed with a received message.

 _Mr. Arc, please report to my office at your earliest convenience. -Headmaster Ozpin_

"Huh." I remained seated at the desk, not quite sure what to make of the summons. Pyrrha rose from her bed and stretched a bit, so I greeted her with, "Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"I did, actually. Did you rest like you promised you would?"

"Yep yep," I lied as I looked over at my makeshift futon, comprised of a bedsheet, pillow, and Grimm plush that Nora had retrieved from... somewhere. "Listen, Professor Ozpin just called me to his office, so I'm gonna go see what he wants from me."

"The headmaster?" The quizzical tilt to her head would've been 'cute', were it not for me trying to ignore how she looked in her slim red nightgown. Darn Sky for making me think about all the pretty girls around me! "Is it about last night?"

"Probably. I'll tell you all about it later, okay?" I already had my school uniform on, so I grabbed my scroll from the desk and left the room.

On the way there I began to ponder what Ozpin could want. It could be something as simple as "Yo, what's your Semblance?" (if he talked like that) or it could be something else...

Like my transcripts.

The thought made me slow down my walking pace. My falsified transcripts hadn't mentioned any kind of Semblance, but something like the ability to heal people would've been found a long time ago in any combat school and jotted down somewhere. ' _Maybe because I displayed a new power he reviewed my transcripts and found out that something's wrong with them? Oh, Monty, I hope not_.

I was scared. Scared that I'd been found out because I decided to help a friend out. I prayed to whatever god would listen for my continued enrollment at Beacon.

Before too long I found myself in front of the elevator leading to his office. Taking a deep breath, I pressed the button to open it and hit the headmaster's floor. It felt like the longest elevator ride ever to me, but all too soon the door opened again and I stepped into his office.

Gears. There were gears everywhere, all moving in unison like the guts of a giant clock. Ozpin himself was sitting at his desk as I approached, Beacon coffee mug in one hand as he observed my entrance. Regular coffee instead of decaf, I noted duly. "Welcome, Mr. Arc. Please, have a seat."

I obeyed, sinking into the rather comfy cushion within it. "Is everything okay, Professor?"

"Admittedly, things are not perfect, Mr. Arc. Professor Goodwitch has informed me of team CRDL's transgressions against their teammate Sky Lark. I wish that such a thing hadn't happened, but we can only move forward from here. However, that is not why I've called you here today."

 _'Crap crap CRAP!'_ "Then why am I here, sir?"

Ozpin took a sip from his mug, his expression impossible to read. "Last night, you demonstrated the ability to heal other people with your Aura. What can you tell me about that, young man?"

Were my palms sweating? Even in hindsight I'm not sure. "Oh, that sir? Well, it's... kind of a new thing I learned thanks to my Semblance. I can heal minor wounds, like the bruises Sky had."

"Interesting." Another pause, just without a sip of coffee this time. "Is there a particular reason you emphasized 'minor wounds?'"

 _'Damn, he caught that?'_ I had to give it to him: he was headmaster for a reason. "Because at the moment it isn't... well, efficient. It took a lot of my Aura just to heal Sky yesterday; more than half, in fact."

"Ah, I see. Out of curiosity, do you believe that your ability to heal others could improve?"

"Without a doubt, sir." The Game told me so, after all. "How much better I don't know, but I can do it."

 **Your closeness with Ozpin has increased by 1!**

Ozpin smiled for the first time this whole meeting. "That's good to hear, Mr. Arc. As headmaster of Beacon, I encourage you to hone your healing arts to the best that they can be. And I commend you for taking action to heal a fellow classmate when you were given the chance."

He hesitated for a moment, but I got the feeling that I shouldn't interrupt. "In the future, there may be... certain people that you need to help with your Semblance. For their sake, please do your best."

Rather than question his strange speech, I chose to just nod and roll with it. "Yes sir. Is there anything else you needed from me, Professor?"

"No, that will be all for now. Please enjoy your weekend, Mr. Arc." I took the dismissal for what it was, happy that my transcripts hadn't been called into question. It made sense to me: he was a teacher; and, like Weiss said, healing Semblances are ludicrously rare. In his eyes, it would be a true waste of my potential to not push my Semblance as far as it could go.

Content with the state of affairs, I focused my attention onto something happier: blowing minds with my music!

X

 **A shorter chapter than I initially planned, but I also feel that it's a lot better than my first draft. Also, with me taking so long, I felt that you guys deserved *something*.**

 **The Performance was actually supposed to take place this chapter, but I decided to focus on a bit of plot progression instead. Music time is next time.**

 **For now, GG!**


	14. Chapter 13 Omake!

**A/N: Chapter thirteen originally didn't have an Omake, but a coversation I had with Remzal Von Enili after I posted it gave me a bit of inspiration. Say "thank you, Remzal!"**

 **Enjoy**

X

 _Omake: Inappropriate Healing_

How had things gotten to this point? Standing around me were not only the rest of my team and team RWBY, but each and every one of the Beacon faculty members.

Even _Professor Peach_.

It all started with a simple question from Yang: are the Grimm technically alive, or are they closer to zombies and the undead? When asked why it mattered, she said that she'd been thinking about how I'd gotten Cure from a Final Fantasy game, and how practically every game in the series had an enemy or group of enemies that were undead, therefore able to be killed by healing them. I'd been content to leave the subject alone because I didn't feel like experimenting with healing the enemy of mankind; but, unfortunately for me, Professor Port overheard our discussion.

He'd been intrigued by the idea and shared it with Professor Oobleck, who shared it with Goodwitch, who told it to Ozpin...

Now, I was surrounded by people as we awaited the arrival of a Grimm. I'd been told to think negative thoughts to attract one, so I did. Happily. _'This is stupid; why is everybody going with this farce? Stupid Yang with her ideas, stupid Nora with her oysters, and don't get me **started** on-'_

 _Growl!_

A group of beowolves crept around a some bushes, looking at me like I was a midday snack. Four in total, they all charged at me with hunger in their eyes. Sadly for them, it was all planned out: Weiss bounced one up with a glyph before it got shot down by Port's blunderbuss; Blake yanked the second with her weapon into Yang, who promptly smashed it into dust; and the third was promptly Nora'd. Yes, that's a verb.

The last beowolf got within ten feet of me, which is when Goodwitch caught it with her telekinesis and held it in place. On command, Ruby calmly walked forward and sliced only the left claw off of the creature; it roared out in pain, but was still very much alive. Ozpin tapped me on the shoulder and calmly said, "Your turn, Mr. Arc."

I stepped forward with a sigh, deliberately staying at the five foot limit of Cure while the beowolf snipped and snarled. Putting my hand up, I cast a single use of Cure without chaining it.

The results were almost instantaneous, but they were far from what any of us expected; rather than the missing claw healing up or the monster dying in a blaze of holy glory, the monster began to settle down. It stopped struggling against the telekinesis and its eyes drooped to what would be half-lidded on a person, giving a soft howl as it began... _singing._ Extremely confused, I used Observe on it.

 **Beowulf**

 **Emotion(s): Content**

 **Condition: High.**

It was that one word that tripped me up: **high**. My Cure, for some godsforsaken reason, had caused the Grimm to become high as a fucking kite. Professor Goodwitch let it go and the monster simply fell, hitting the ground with a thump before it resumed its crooning. May I remind you that the claw was still missing, it just didn't _care._

Nora was the first to vocalize it. "Guys, is it acting like how I think it's acting?"

Yang walked over it poked it with her boot. "It's freaking baked! Jaune, what did you do?!"

"I-I cured it, just like we planned." I was utterly stumped, and turned to Ozpin for an answer. "Professor, do you have any idea why it's like this?"

He took a sip from his ever-present coffee mug. "No, Mr. Arc; I don't. I do, however, have an idea of what we can do with this information."

The headmaster promptly whipped out his scroll and began going through his contacts, making even Professor Goodwitch question him. "What are you doing, Ozpin?"

"Making world peace a reality," he answered cryptically. After a moment, his call connected on a voice-only line. "Hello? Yes, it's me. No, I'm not-"

The other party spoke some words that none of us besides Ozpin could hear. He waited for them to finish before saying, "I'm calling because I have something you might want..."

 _Three weeks later..._

I felt so used.

I was sitting on a large sofa next to a woman named Salem, who turned out to be the Queen of all Grimm. The very bane of mankind's existence was less than five feet from me...

...lounging backwards as she lazily bit through a slice of pizza. After she spent a moment chewing it, she looked over at me with a dopey smile. "I've godda say, Jaauune... when Ozpin told me that he had somethin' I'd want more than thr relics, I though' he was bullshittin'. But you... you're the real deal!"

"...Thank you." This was the second time that day that I'd heard that line, but I'd learned to just roll with it. As part of a deal between Salem and Ozpin, Salem would call off creating more Grimm and let any that existed be destroyed without her guidance; in exchange, I came by her castle in the Grimmlands once a week and... well, I was her drug dealer, basically. The drug known as "Cure."

 _Thump!_ Across the table that the many pizza boxes were laying on, Pyrrha, Ruby, and Cinder were sitting on a sofa of their own. The latter's head was now firmly implanted into the table as she groaned in frustration while Ruby leaned over and gave her a consoling back rub. My friends were my bodyguards for these trips in case we came upon any stray Grimm, while Cinder was suffering from her now inept employer. At the sound of Cinder's head meeting the hard wood, Salem leaned forward and asked, "By the way, Cindy... Did you giv' my idea any more-"

"No," came the firm response from the ravenette as she pulled herself up. "I will _not_ marry the Arc boy just so you can get your fix on a daily basis!"

Salem slumped in her seat. "Awww. An' your kids would look so good, too."

 _Crack!_

That was the sound of the table breaking under Pyrrha's grip, both of her hands clasped firmly as she held barely refrained from slaughtering the Grimm Queen where she sat. Ruby grabbed her shoulder, but it wasn't to console her; it was to stop her from acting Salem. I grimaced at their reactions, but what could I do? I was a piece in a very, very strange game of Life. Rising from my seat, I looked down at Salem and said, "Well, it's been fun, but it's time for us to go home now. I'll see you next Saturday."

"Wa-Wait!" Salem got strangely serious, causing me to stop moving and raise a questioning eyebrow. In response, she stuck out her left arm. "...Top me off?"

I gave a suffering sigh as I leaned down and gently held her wrist, silently using Cure.

 **The skill level of Cure has increased by 1!**

 **Cure has evolved into Cura!**

"Ooohh, shit!" Salem's body writhed with what could only be ecstasy. "Did you get even better?!"

Pyrrha snapped, lunging across the table before Ruby Semblance-tackled her back. "I'll kill her! _I'll freaking kill her!!_ "

"No, Pyrrha, no! It's not worth it and she didn't mean it like that!"

Salem tilted her head in confusion. "Waz got her mad?"

"Don't worry about it," I answered as I helped Ruby pull Pyrrha out of the room. Cursing Ozpin for putting me through this, I briefly wondered if Cure's final version would just render Salem catatonic as keeping her silent would probably be for the best.

Behind me I heard a slurred voice shout, "See you latah, Jaauune!"

I felt so... _so_ used.

X

 **Now wasn't that fun? I hope you enjoyed this spark of insanity. Until next time (on a real chapter!)**


	15. Chapter 14 - Showtime!

**A/N: Okay, so, the reception to Baked Salem.**

 **Holy hell.**

 **It has been absolutely astounding to see the love that Chapter 13's Omake has received. Thank you, and you can bet your tush that you'll be seeing that timeline again in the future. Not for a few chapters, though, due to a combination of a different omake or two coming up first, plus one chapter that'll be far too serious to have an omake after.**

 **About this chapter, I'm using abridged versions of the songs to save time and text.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

A quick message to Ren revealed that he and Sky had moved to the common room to start making some pre-performance pancakes, so I grabbed my guitar from our dorm and went to meet them there. I was feeling... well, not a hundred percent confident in myself, but comfortable enough with my improvement over the past week.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Title: Newbie Hero**

 **LV: 14 EXP: 13.1%**

 **HP: 630/630**

 **AP: 840/840**

 **STR: 19**

 **DEX: 16**

 **CON: 21**

 **INT: 17**

 **WIS: 17**

 **CHA: 27 (2)**

 **SP: 11**

~ **Singing (Passive) LV: 11 EXP: 36.5%**

 **The talent that has entertained countless people since the dawn of man. This skill reflects your ability to hit those notes in just the right way.**

 **33.3%** **chance of causing the "charmed" status while using this skill.** **Success rate is also affected by relationship values and your CHA.**

~ **Guitar Playing (Passive) LV: 25 EXP: 25.7%**

 **This skill is proof of your ability to pick and strum with the rest of them. Can you stand amongst the best of 'em**

 **75% chance of causing the "Charmed" status while using this skill. Success rate is also affected by relationship values and your CHA.**

All things considered, I was in a decent spot. Guitar was looking to Max out at level thirty-three, though I didn't have proof of that yet. Singing had come along well, and I certainly knew my four songs well enough to perform for a small crowd.

I'd be fiiiiine...

Right? I mean, I'd been playing and singing for years only to discover that my singing was still at level _one_ , but other than that everything was okay! I just had to keep calm.

Calm.

I was not calm; I was, in fact, internally freaking out at the prospect of trying and failing in front of my friends. And, paradoxically, I shouldn't have even been able to _have_ a panic attack like I was since I had Gamer's Mind. In a moment of clarity, it struck me as odd that not only was I having a mini-heart attack at that moment, I'd had a similar freak out just before meeting with Professor Ozpin. "Hey Game," I said with some annoyance, "what's the big deal here?"

I'd only done that in order to vent to myself; the last thing I expected was a response.

 **Bug detected. Skill [Gamer's Mind] has failed to activate appropriately. Determining cause...** **Please wait...**

 **Error: source of bug unknown. Would you like to send a report? Y/N**

I stopped walking as I read it. Send a report? As in I could send the relevant data off to a _person?_ I pressed 'Yes.'

 **The bug report has been compiled and sent. Please expect a patch to be issued in due time. Thank you.**

It hit me like Magnhild. Beforehand, I'd just believed that I had a weird Semblance that occasionally didn't make sense. I never truly believed that I had a developer behind the scenes, only that my mind must've been bizarre enough to create a Semblance based off of video games. But the proof was in the writing: somebody, or maybe even more than one person, was in charge of the things going on with me.

 _'What the hell am I?_

It was extremely unsettling, knowing that someone completely unknown had legitimate power over me. What if this Developer got mad at me? Were my decisions really mine to make, or could I be punished for straying from the path that they set down for me?

I slapped my cheek to snap myself out of it. I wouldn't get anywhere right that second; all I could do was put one step in front of the other and figure things out as I went along.

 **By deducing a facet of truth about the Game, your INT has increased by 1!**

Oh, piss off!

I made it to the common room before long and saw Sky animatedly talking to Ren, who was flipping some pancakes over on the stove. "-as the strangest thing I've ever seen, I swear. But my dad was right about them, so I've made sure to listen to him since then."

"What story did I just walk in on?"

Sky grinned as he faced me. "A story about circus clowns and how my dad gives good advice."

I laughed as I sat down on the sofa. "I wish mine gave good advice. My dad only issues wisdom that's weird or doesn't work at all."

Ren let his eyes leave his culinary work to raise a brow at me. "Surely you must be exaggerating."

"Oh I can prove it." I held up three fingers. "He always repeated these three sayings. First, 'all women look for is confidence.' That bit of advice resulted in me making Weiss think that I'm a weirdo."

"You might have the wrong understanding of what confidence is, Jaune."

"You're certainly right, Ren, but it isn't like he ever explained it to me. The second saying is 'when two people are truly in love, the only thing that's impossible is deciding where to eat.'"

Sky rubbed his chin in thought. "It's a cute saying, but I don't see how that would ever work as advice."

"See? And last, but certainly not least as I quote him word for word, 'no matter how great an idea it is at the time, don't stick your dick in crazy. It isn't worth it.'"

The sizzle of the pancake pan was the only noise for a moment as my two guy friends processed that little bit. Eventually, Ren spoke as he flipped the flapjack. "...He's probably not wrong."

Sky stifled a laugh. "Now that was a stiff answer. Is there anything you'd like to explain about the 'you and Nora' situation?"

"Nora and I aren't like that; I was simply agreeing with the sentiment." Pause. "And Nora isn't crazy, just very eccentric."

"Uh-huh." There was more than a little doubt in Sky's voice, but he dropped the topic and moved on. "So, Jaune, can I get a preview of the show?"

"Nope. You get to hear me at the same time as everyone else." As Sky gave a fake disappointed snap of his fingers, I decided to review my stats. I wanted to apply some SP before I leveled up from the quest, and I had an idea of where to plug them.

 **STR: 19 - 20**

 **DEX: 16 - 20**

 **CON: 21 - 25**

 **WIS: 17 - 18**

 **CHA: 27 - 28**

 **HP: 630 - 750**

 **AP: 840 - 1000**

 **SP: 11 - 0**

There; nice and relatively even stat development... at least until I figured out if and how I wanted to specialize. It had the added benefit of meeting the stat requirements for learning the "Ripper Mode" skill; whether the skill was a good thing remained to be seen.

I continued chatting with Ren and Sky until Professor Goodwitch appeared and pulled Sky to the side for a moment. Once she finished relaying her information, Sky returned to the couch and let out a sigh. "Well, at least I won't see them for a while."

"What happened?"

"It was decided that the three of them would be taken on a special 'training exercise' as a punishment for ganging up on their own teammate. Apparently, Professor Port is escorting them through the Emerald Forest for the next few days."

Ren set his latest batch on a plate as he shut off the stove. "Objectively speaking, the punishment doesn't seem to match up to the offense."

Sky held up a a finger, signaling that he wasn't done yet. "None of them have their weapons; not even Port. Supposedly, it's an exercise about being able to trust the people around you. Silver lining: Port's classes are canceled until they get back."

That made a lot more sense, even if it did tip the punishment scale towards the "cruel" side. With any luck, the three of them will come out better for it. I had a small question for Sky about the situation. "So are you gonna spend the next few days crashing in our dorm, or head back to CRDL's room?"

"I'm gonna head back; no point in putting you out of a bed if I don't need to, after all. Again, though, I appreciate everything you did."

Nora's voice broke in from outside the room. "N'awww, are you gonna bro-hug again? 'Cause if you are, I want a picture of it this time."

In walked Nora and Pyrrha with plastic shopping bags hanging off of their arms. The former practically threw all of her bags onto the counter top before whipping out her scroll and pointing it at us. "Come on, make nice for the Nora-cam."

I grabbed a nearby cushion and chucked it at her, nearly pegging Ren when she dodged. Shaking my head, I asked Pyrrha, "Did you two find everything okay?"

"Without a single hitch." She flashed me one of her winning smiles. "Did we miss anything?"

I shrugged. "Eh, not much; just Port's classes being cancelled until further notice because he's busy supervising CRDL's punishment."

"Really?" She pondered that as she set her own bags down. "That makes Monday morning free for us. I wonder how we should spend it?"

"Who cares," interjected Nora happily. "At least we're avoiding another boring story. For right now, let's just get these sandwiches made!"

Time began to slip by as the kitchen devolved into Nora-induced chaos, and before long it was time for the show. RWBY, JNPR, and Sky were now situated in the courtyard, with thin picnic blankets spread out for people to sit down on. The food had already been served, though I noticed that Blake had a suspiciously large stack of the tuna salad sandwiches; I didn't know whether to laugh or to call her out for being stereotypical.

Nora had "procured" a stool for me to sit on, so I was perched on it as I did one final sound test. In my head, I kept repeating a mantra: we're all here to have fun, so relax. We're all here to have fun, so relax.

Once I was sufficiently warmed up, I began speaking to my adoring crowd of eight people. "I would like to thank all one million of my fans for coming to watch me today."

Nora stopped chewing long enough to give a tiny "Woo!" while the rest chuckled and clapped. As silly as the joke was, it did help me feel more at ease. "First up on the list is the song chosen by Ren, called 'Lonely Stranger.' I figured we should start off gently."

 _I must be invisible;_ _No one knows me._

 _I have crawled down dead-end streets_ / _On my hands and knees._

 _I was born with a ragin' thirst_ / _A hunger to be free,_

 _But I've learned through the years._ _Don't encourage me_.

 _'Cause I'm a lonely stranger here_ / _Well beyond my day._

 _And I don't know what's goin' on_ / _So I'll be on my way._

To be perfectly honest with you, there was a better reason for putting Ren's song first than "it was gentle." Fact is, Lonely Stranger was the most guitar-intense song I was playing that day, so I wanted to put my much higher guitar skill level to good use and "charm" them all early. Lucky for me, it seemed to work just fine; within the first two minutes they all had happy faces as they listened to me, although I think I noticed Weiss scribbling something into a notepad. Was she grading me, or was I just imagining it?

 _When I walk, stay behind;_ _Don't get close to me,_

 _'Cause it's sure to end in tears_ / _So just let me be._

 _Some will say that I'm no good;_ _Maybe I agree._

 _Take a look then walk away_ / _That's all right with me._

 _'Cause I'm a lonely stranger here/ Well beyond my day._

 _And I don't know what's goin' on/ So I'll be on my way._

Once I finished, they all began clapping with varying intensities. "Thank you. Our next song is Pyrrha's; she told me that she chose this one since she knew that it'd be way easier to learn than Nora's song, which I'll be singing last."

"Boo!" The culprit was obvious, so I ignored it and started playing once more.

 _Love me tender, Love me sweet/ Never let me go_

 _You have made my life complete/ And I love you so_

 _Love me tender, Love me true/ All my dreams fulfilled_

 _For my darling I love you/ And I always will_

Observing them as I sang, I noticed that Ruby and Pyrrha had slightly different reactions than the others. The rest were simply content and enjoying it, but those two were a little flushed and, according to the Game, daydreaming about something. I wasn't the only person who noticed; Yang happened to glance at them and was inspired to take a picture with her Scroll. There was no doubt in my mind that there would be plenty of teasing going on later.

 _Love me tender, Love me dear/ Tell me you are mine_

 _I'll be yours through all the years/ Till the end of time_

 _Love me tender, Love me true/ All my dreams fulfilled_

 _For my darling I love you/ And I always will._

They all applauded me again, though Ruby and Pyrrha were distracted and started a couple seconds after the others. As I took a drink of water, I wondered what they were thinking about while I was playing. "Third up is my personal pick, and I'll gladly admit that I'm trying to show off my voice a little. Who here likes the Goo Goo Dolls?"

Yang pumped her arns enthusiastically, which I happily considered an answer to my question; Weiss, on the other hand, seemed confused, so Ruby leaned over to explain who they were as I got the guitar ready. Honestly, though, how could she not know about them? How very uncultured of her.

 _And I'd give up forever to touch you/ 'Cause I know that you feel me somehow_

 _You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be/ And I don't wanna go home right now_

 _And all I can taste is this moment/ And all I can breathe is your life_

 _When sooner or later it's over/ I just don't wanna miss you tonight_

 _And I don't want the world to see me/ 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand_

 _When everything's made to be broken/ I just want you to know who I am_

While I performed, Yang stealthily scooched backwards until she was close enough to Nora to whisper in her ears. After a moment, the ginger gave an enthusiastic nod and Yang snuck back to her original location. What were those two planning?

 _And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming/ Or the moment of truth in your lies_

 _When everything feels like the movies/ Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive_

 _And I don't want the world to see me/ 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand_

 _When everything's made to be broken/ I just want you to know who I am_

 _I just want you to know who I am_

 _I just want you to know who I am_

 _I just want you to know who I am_

Their enthusiasm was now greater than ever. They were loving this! And now... I gave a sigh and took one more drink of water. "Last is the song I've been looking forward to the least. No, Nora, you're not recording this."

Yang spoke up as Nora tsk'd. "You make it sound like it's awful."

"It's not, really, just... super embarrassing. It's entirely in falsetto, and a silly song to boot." I rose from my stool and put my guitar down, using my free hand to dig through my scroll. "I managed to find a karaoke version of it so that I could focus solely on singing. Aaaand, found it."

I hit the play button and set it on the stool, switching to my falsetto voice as I spoke; just so you know, it took hours to make it not sound like Mickey Mouse if he'd just gotten hit in the Minnies. "If I rupture your ear drums with this, I am so sorry."

Everybody whipped their heads backwards in shock at my new tone, even Nora, but the song was starting so I couldn't comment further. The final boss had arrived!

 _I'm so happy! Happy go lucky me!/ I just go my way, living everyday!_

 _I don't worry! Worrying don't agree/ Things that bother you, never bother me!_

The laughter started before I even finished the first verse, with each and every one of them failing to maintain any form of dignity as I progressed. Even Ren and Blake, who were well known for keeping any mirth to the level of smirks and small smiles, were clutching their sides in a vain attempt to regain their breath. Despite the fact that everyone was laughing at me it didn't feel mean-spirited in the slightest, and I felt well enough to add a walk back and forth and pretend that I was holding a microphone.

 _Things that bother you, never bother me/ I feel happy and fine!_

 _AHA!_

 _Living in the sunlight, loving in the moonlight/ having a wonderful time!_

 _Haven't got a lot, I don't need a lot/ Coffee's only a dime_

 _Living in the sunlight, loving in the moonlight/ having a wonderful time!_

By this point, Nora had taken swaying back and forth in time with the music. As frustrated with her as I'd been over the song choice, I couldn't stay mad in the face of her sheer, unadulterated joy. Oh well; with a team like mine, that's what it means to be a leader.

 _Just take it from me, I'm just as free as any daughter._

 _I do what I like, just what I like, and how I love it!_

 _I'm right here to stay, when I'm old and gray/ I'll be right in my prime,_

 _Living in the sunlight, loving in the moonlight/ having a wonderful time!_

I all but collapsed as I finished, emotionally spent from putting my all into such a bouncy song. I managed to control myself, though, and gave a bow at the mix of applause and laughter. I was done, and had somehow not screwed it all up!

 **Expert** **Quest Success!**

 **Reward: 50,000 EXP.**

 **Your level has increased by 1! Your level has increased by 1!**

 **Your closeness with Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren have increased by 10!**

 **Your closeness with Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Sky have increased by 5!**

 **You have received the Title "One-Man Show"!**

 **~One-Man Show**

 **This Title is proof of your showmanship and ability to capture your audience's attention. May your voice be heard beyond the mountain tops!**

 **5% boost to CHA (rounded up). When using a [Performing] or [Leadership] skill, your voice carries farther before it fades or is obscured by other noises.**

 _'Less Charisma than the shopkeeper title, and the secondary effect isn't as useful as earning more Lien from Grimm. Not all titles can be winners, I guess.'_ I couldn't see myself ever really using it, but it was nice to have, I guess. What intrigued me more was the thought of what a "leadership skill" could be. Maybe there was an unlock for giving a speech?

 **You have earned the Title "Expert Seeker!"**

 **~Expert Seeker**

 **You are a Gamer that is just starting to explore the feared "Expert Mode!" Is the higher difficulty worth the higher rewards?**

 **10% EXP to all quest completion bonuses and enemy kills. Upon completion of an Expert Quest, you earn one SP that must be allotted immediately.**

 _That_ , however, interested me greatly. Extra EXP and SP? Yes, please! I'd definitely equip this title before going Grimm-hunting or finishing a quest.

All-in-all, I was happy with the results.

As my audience rose from their seats, Ruby almost bounced over to me. "Thank you so much for the show, Jaune! It was a lot of fun!"

Pyrrha smiled and nodded. "I agree; the hours you put into practicing those songs really shined through."

"Aww. Thanks, you two." Considering what I'd just finished singing, the genuine praise was a little awkward for me; still, I was plenty grateful. "I'm just glad I didn't botch the whole thing."

Nora beat her chest proudly. "It's official: we have the coolest team leader in Beacon!"

"As Ruby's older sis, I'm contractually obligated to say that you're wrong." Yang strolled up beside her sibling and grabbed her shoulder. "I've got a few questions for you, Sis; as your older sister, of course."

"Huh?" Yang snapped her fingers, causing Nora to grab said leader and help carry her away. "Wait, let me down! Why are you helping Yang, Nora!?"

"She asked me to while Jaune was singing. Duh." Having hoisted Ruby over her shoulder, Nora waved to the rest of us with her free hand. "See you all later! We're off to interrogate a Rose."

"Nooooo!" Ruby was carried away with a wail, leaving a bemused Blake and an indifferent Weiss; I offered her condolences in my head. The WB of RWBY departed after giving thanks of their own, leaving the clean-up to JPR and Sky. After the paper plates were disposed of and the picnic blankets collected, we returned to our dorm room and decided as a team (minus Nora) that we'd have a sparring session the next day. With any luck, I would at least stand a chance against my teammates.

X

 **"Panda, wait... That's the end of the chapter? What happened to poor, little Ruby?"**

 **Next time, my friends. Next time. Phone troubles and all that, plus I really wanted to just move past the writer's block that was the performance.**

 **Something that I'd like to point out now is the difference in payouts for failed quests. If you look back to when Jaune received the music quest, the Normal version said "1,500 EXP and decreased closeness" while the updated Expert version simply said "decreased closeness." Expert quests have risks to them; in this case, the difference was only him not getting any EXP if he failed, but later on...**

 **Who knows?**

 **The omake below is, quite simply, the "wacky timeline" version of the chapter you just finished reading. Enjoy!**

X

 _Omake: An alternate performance_

I'd been left alone in JNPR's dorm room to get one last bit of practice in. I didn't actually need to practice more, however, because the songs I would be performing...

Well, they existed. Damnit, Pyrrha.

Suddenly, a Game text box appeared. It was a PM.

 _Nora: There's been a little change of venue, fearless leader. Instead of meeting up with us in the courtyard, you should head to the auditorium. Back entrance. I'll say it now: my bad._

 _'What did she do now?'_ Sighing to myself, I put my guitar in its case and departed for the auditorium, with the only certainty in my mind being that I would hate whatever she did. She was already accepting the blame!

As I walked through Beacon's halls, I began to realize that there wasn't a soul to be seen. Usually you would spot some students loitering or walking from A to B, but at that moment there was absolutely nobody besides myself. Where was everybody?

Within minutes I was at the designated entryway and opening the door; as soon as I put my foot through, a pair of hands yanked me in and began marching me in some direction. It was Professor Ozpin of all people, and before I could say a word he began to ramble a bit. "Thank goodness you're here, Mr. Arc. I would hate to keep the crowd waiting any longer than necessary. Coco Adel will be touching up your appearance before your show."

Why was Coco- "Sir, what's going on here?"

"Why, your performance is in a few minutes, of course." He looked at me as if I were stupid. "What else could it possibly be?"

"Yes, professor, but what do you mean crowd? Why do I need Coco?"

Professor Goodwitch approached us from the front as we walked. "The livestream is ready to go, Ozpin."

"Ah, good. Thank you, Glynda."

Livestream!? "Sir!?"

In a heartbeat, I went from walking to sitting on a short chair in front of a mirror with lights attached to it. Ozpin nodded to someone I couldn't see. "Ms. Adel, if you would have him ready as soon as possible and send him in."

"Sure thing, Prof." Sure enough, Coco was there with a full make-up kit and went to work straightening out my hair as Ozpin and Goodwitch left me where I was. "I gotta say, Arc, I'm looking forward to the show myself."

It was all happening too fast for me to take in. "Coco, why in the world am I getting treated like this?"

Her hands never paused as she answered me. "Nora went and told every person she could that JNPR and RWBY were getting a private music show. Ozpin decided that he wanted to use this show as a way to pull in prospective students for next year. You know, 'Jaune Arc goes to Beacon and you can, too!'"

Oh.

Oh _shit!_ I started to struggle to get out of my chair, but I was pinned down by her iron grip. "We've got to call it off, Coco! The songs I'm supposed to sing will just embarrass the school! AND ME!"

Hair combing became nose powdering, for whatever reason. "No can do, Arc. The entire student body and at least twenty thousand civilians are ready to watch you knock our socks off. Do you know how much decent camera equipment costs? It's too late to back out now."

"Why are you stopping me!?"

"Because Ozpin promised me some extra credit for making you look presentable, and I happen to have a thing for blondes who can sing." She stopped for just a second and nodded appreciatively at her work. "Good to go. Let's move you on out."

Wait, what did she just say? "Coco-"

It turned out that the chair I was in was on wheels, because she grabbed my guitar case, shoved its contents into my hands, and rolled me down the hall with a shove. Once my momentum died and I was able to stand up, Ozpin showed up once more and led me to a set of curtains. "Ms. Adel did a fair job. Now it's time for the show to begin!"

"Professor Ozpin-"

The curtains separated majestically, and to my shock and horror I discovered that Coco hadn't been exaggerating. Literally every person in Beacon was there, standing room only. Velvet was at the end of the stage with a free-roam professional video camera; you know, the type you see on TV show sets. When the curtains opened fully, Peter Port's voice boomed out. "Ladies and Gentlemen, get ready for Jaune Arc!"

The audience began cheering. Overwhelmed, it was all I could do to return a small wave. I finally noticed RWBY and NPR standing in the front row, all of them clapping enthusiastically. Pyrrha in particular seemed particularly into the motions, all but swooning where she stood.

This was gonna suck so much.

Sighing to myself, I walked forward towards the sole microphone on the stage, grabbed the nearby stool, and plopped myself down. Once I finished adjusting the height of the mic stand, I addressed the crowd while doing my best to ignore Velvet's camera work. "Hi, everybody. I've got to say, I had no idea that I'd be playing to a crowd this large today."

I gave Nora a quick glare. "No idea at all."

She made a "cute" gesture out of winking and lightly hitting herself in the head. It took all of my willpower to not glare at her harder; the show had to go on. "To give everybody here the backstory of this show, I asked my team to tell me what songs they'd like for me to perform for them. This first song was chosen by my partner, Pyrrha."

I gestured to Pyr with one hand, leading Velvet to turn the camera towards her for a moment. Pyrrha gave the camera a professional smile and wave until all eyes were on me again, waiting for me to start. I plucked a few strings without rhythm, hoping one of them would suddenly snap and cut my hand, giving me a reason to cancel the whole thing.

No such luck. Resigned, I began to sing.

 _Twinkle, twinkle, little star/ How I wonder what you are..._

I all but felt the crowd stiffen. It was utterly humiliating! Pyrrha had chosen this song because, quote, "It would be easy enough to learn after having to deal with Nora's song." Did this girl have no clue how embarrassing this entire scenario was?

 _Up above the world so high/ Like a diamond in the sky..._

Apparently she didn't, because she had both of her hands clasped together almost like a prayer, her emerald eyes worshipping me as if I were the second coming of Oum. Was she really that happy that I was singing her song first?

 _Twinkle, twinkle little star/ how I wonder what you are._

Pin. Drop. Silent. Not even a single cough broke the silence, and as I looked around I realized that many people had there mouthes hanging open. Judging me for my sin. I'm sure they were thinking I was high on Cure or something like th-

Clap.

Two hands coming together to express merriment and wonder. I looked to the source to see Weiss Schnee-

Clap.

\- starting a slow clap. A _slow clap._ Tears were actually streaming down her face, as if I'd performed some miracle and she'd been overcome with sheer emotion.

What the hell?

In good time, somebody else began to clap. Then a third, a fourth, a twentieth... The audience began to _roar_ , stomping the ground with enough force to simulate an earthquake.

 **Your closeness with Beacon's students and staff has increased by 20!**

 **Your closeness with the online viewers has increased by 10!**

What the **_fuck_. ** Confused beyond measure, I decided to take a moment during their ear-rupturing applause to check my stats and skills. It was there that I found the cause.

 **Singing (Passive) LV: MAX**

 **Guitar Playing (Passive) LV: MAX**

Ooooh; I had somehow forgotten that I'd been practicing that much. The Game had enabled me to charm all of my listeners without effort. Wasn't that a little... overpowered?

It seemed overpowered.

As the applause finally died down, I decided that if I was already destined to succeed, I'd have fun with it. Enjoy myself and my broken powers. "Thank you all so much. Our next song was chosen by my friend Lie Ren, and I believe that he actually had a prop made. Ren, would you like to come up?"

Beckoned, Ren hoisted himself onto the stage with a stick of bamboo in both hands. He met my eyes and nodded, turning to face the crowd as I was. He was as silent as ever, but I could tell that he was excited for this. "If any of you out there know this song, I'd like to invite you to sing the chorus every time it comes up. How does that sound?"

Some more applause, though it was mixed with some odd looks amongst the populace. What song would they happen to know that involved bamboo? I told them. "Have you folks ever watched the movie... Mulan?"

Eyes widened, cheers erupted, and some guy in the back shouted "Hell yeah!" I nodded at Ren to get him moving as I started to sing.

 _Jaune: Let's get down to business/ to defeat... the Huns!_

 _Ren and audience: Ha!_

X

 **Good times, gooood times. I hope you all loved reading it as much as I loved writing it.** **Below, for anyone who cares, is Jaune's current friend list**

 **For now, GG!**

X

 **Friends List- Arranged by closeness**

 **Pyrrha Nikos -46- Partner and Potential "Partner"**

 **Ruby Rose -44- Great buddies (?)**

 **Nora Valkyrie -41- Awesome Leader!**

 **Lie Ren -40- Good Friend and Leader**

 **Yang Xiao Long -30- Good Friend**

 **Blake Belladonna -26- Friend**

 **Sky Lark -20- Friend**

 **Weiss Schnee -13- Friend**

 **Velvet Scarlatina -10- Friend**

 **Cardin Winchester -(-18)-** **Enemy**


	16. Chapter 15 - The Mask of Truth

**A/N: One of the guest reviews recently pointed out that it was dumb of Jaune to waste his stat points at such an early stage when A) it wasn't life or death and B) diminishing returns has been established as a thing.**

 **My response is: Yes, it was dumb. _That's exactly why I wrote it_. **

**You'll see**.

 **GL; HF!**

X

Two weeks.

Blake had known her teammates for only fourteen days, starting from the moment Ruby collided with Weiss's luggage and she (Blake) had taken the opportunity to slip a tiny verbal insult into the conversation; at the heiress's expense, of course. If someone had told her before coming to Beacon that she would be fairly content with being teammates with the eventual head of the SDC, the world's worst blonde punster, and a fifteen-year-old who had skipped two years and been named the team leader, she probably would've laughed in their face and suffered through giggle fits for the rest of the day.

But now, here she was walking beside Weiss Schnee as she went over her grading of Jaune's musical performance as Nora carried their prodigy leader over her shoulder under Yang's command. Being a part of such a scene was perhaps the farthest thing from her mind when she applied to Beacon, and now she was able to accept it as part of her new norm. This was her life, and she couldn't be happier.

By the gods were her cat ears feeling itchy under her bow.

"We have arrived at the dorm room, Captain Yang!"

"Excellent, Private Nora; now plant my sister on the ground for interrogation."

"Roger!"

Ruby was unceremoniously plopped onto the floor, but she quickly bounced to her feet and pointed an angry finger right into Yang's nose. "Yang, explain your insunburn- insobob-"

Yang was amused, to say the least. "Insubordination?"

"Yes, that! What's going on here!?"

The big sister put a hand on the head of the little sister and rubbed it. "Settle down, Sis. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of the goo-goo eyes you were giving Jaune as he was singing."

Ruby gave the classic 'head tilt of confusion' as she pulled away from the offending hand. "What goo-goo eyes?"

" _These_ goo-goo eyes. Everyone, take a look at this picture I took." The collected girls all leaned in to view the image on Yang's scroll. It was a shot of Ruby and Pyrrha, and both of them were looking a little too entranced with the music. Blake saw Ruby shrivel back a bit as she witnessed the proof Yang offered, and the Faunus felt a smidge of pity for her leader. "So, what were you thinking about as Lover Boy strummed your heartstrings?"

"I wasn't thinking about anything!" Ruby pulled her hood over her head in embarrassment as she backed up even further. "I-I was suddenly in the mood for some cookies, that's all! You know how much I like those."

Yang let out a small 'hm' and nodded her head a few times. "I see, I see. I suppose that Jaune _would_ be pretty tasty if you were eating some icing off of him."

" _Yang!_ Stop being gross! I don't like him that way, and even if I did we only met two weeks ago!"

Could Yang's grin get any wider? "When has that ever stopped someone from being interested in somebody else? Jaune's nice and seems like a good catch; he has the Yang seal of approval!"

"Well he doesn't need it; because Jaune is just my really, really good friend, okay?"

"Your super-bestie-better-than-the-restie?"

Ruby shook her head as her flushing faded a bit under her hood. "No, that's Weiss. Right, Best Friend?"

The heiress rolled her eyes and sat at the desk, clearly removing herself from the conversation. Suddenly, Nora walked over to Yang and whispered something in her ear. The brawler must've loved whatever she said, because her smirk reached its maximum smugness. "Hey, Rubes, let's play a little game. I want you to close your eyes and imagine a scene as I describe it to you."

The hood finally came down as Ruby gave her a suspicious look. "You better not mess with me while my eyes are closed, Sis."

"Blake will keep an eye out for you; right, Blakey?"

"I guess I have to." She plopped herself onto Yang's bed while Ruby sat down on Weiss's. The whole scenario was amusing, and she didn't really mind playing along. "No leaders shall be harmed on my watch."

"See? You're in good hands, so just lie down and let me paint the scene." Ruby grumbled but otherwise obeyed as she lay across Weiss's bed with her legs dangling off of the right side. Nora gave Yang a thumbs up, and the latter stood a distance away from her sister as she began to narrate. "Imagine one of the small chapels back on Patch. There are some people running around excitedly, making sure that everything is perfect for a wedding that's about to happen."

"A wedding?" Ruby still had her eyes closed, but her agitation seemed to have subsided. "Who's getting married?"

"We're getting there. Weiss is the organizer for the wedding, because she's one of the few people we know that could keep track of the many things that go down with big events. The front doors of the chapel open and you see rows of people already sitting down. Just a few dozen folk; you know, keep the wedding small and personal instead of having to look out for hundreds of people. At the very back is Jaune, looking very nice in his fitted tux, and he's about to marry the love of his life."

Yang was using a classic trick to get the inexperienced Ruby comfortable with the idea of a romance with Jaune. While her own eyes were still open, Blake had little trouble visualizing the scene and could admit that it was shaping up to be a rather cute image. "On the groom's side we see Ren and Nora, with Nora being the best man because, let's face it, she would totally do something like that. I'm the maid of honor and Pyrrha is the bridesmaid, there to support the bride on her big day. The person doing the ceremony... Let's say that it's Professor Ozpin just for fun."

"Is there some delicious cake?"

"You usually keep the cake where the reception is, Ruby; but yes, there's a nice strawberry cake that's ready to go after the ceremony. There's also two smaller cakes, one vanilla and one chocolate, for the people who aren't that fond of strawberry cake."

"...They might not need to eat any cake if they don't like strawberry." Blake covered her mouth to prevent a snicker from escaping; Ruby had taken the bait hook, line, and sinker. "But I guess they can be forgiven."

"How kind of you." Yang was having similar difficulties keeping staying focused, but recomposed herself and kept going. "Suddenly, all of the guests stand and turn to face the entrance. The bride has arrived! Her wedding dress is slim and elegant instead of poofy and hard to walk in, and with her face covered by the veil she looks absolutely regal walking the aisle. Some tissues are passed around as family is overwhelmed that the big moment has finally arrived; and since Jaune has seven sisters, that's a lot of tissues."

"No kidding." Ruby's voice was dreamy, almost distant as she was lost in the illusion being given. Blake allowed her own eyes to close as she pictured it all in her mind. The beautiful white bride, about to be whisked away for her honeymoon and beyond... it was a pleasant thought.

"The bride approaches the altar slowly, and Jaune begins beaming as he takes in the sight of his bride. Everyone there can see that he's going to make her happy, all the rest of her days. She finally makes it to the end, and after passing the bouquet to me she turns to face her husband. Jaune reaches up to pull the veil up and over her head to reveal..."

Ruby Ro-

"...Blake."

Blake's eyes snapped open and she looked at Yang incredulously. Since when was this about her!? Ruby still had her eyes closed, but her distressed expression made it clear that the mental whiplash was just as jarring for their leader. "B-Blake?"

"Yep," continued Yang in the same tone as before, "Blake Belladonna is Jaune's bride; and as they take each other's hands she whispers something to him. A private conversation that nobody else can hear, especially from your spot in the chairs with everyone else. You're supporting your two beloved friends just like the rest of the crowd, but there's a part of you that regrets not acting sooner. You regret not taking a chance to make Jaune see that you were right there, all because you couldn't admit to yourself that you saw him as more than just a friend until it was too late."

Ruby sat up with her feet still where they were, and as she opened her eyes looked straight into Blake's. Blake put her hands up defensively, causing the redhead to glance at Yang and ask, "Why did you do that? That... That was so mean."

"I was making a point." Yang's smile finally dropped, and she once again put her hand on Ruby's head and rubbed it. "I'm not saying that you need to rush over to his room right now and ask him for a date, just don't dismiss the idea before it's allowed to form. If you figure out that you really don't like Jaune that way, cool; but if you do like him, give yourself a chance. Do you hear me?"

"Yeah, I think so." Ruby allowed the headrub to continue this time.

Weiss then spoke for the first time since their return. "By the way, why did you make Blake the hypothetical bride instead of Pyrrha? She was giving Jaune the same look Ruby was, after all."

"Oh, well, the first reason is that I'm sure Nora will give Pyrrha plenty of hell for this-"

"It's true," confirmed the ginger.

"-and second is because I checked the party log."

The entire room gave her a quizzical tilt this time, but Blake was the one to vocalize it. "What do you mean, 'party log?'"

"Like I told Jaune, I've been messing with this Game of his and I found out that if you think 'open party log', or something close to it, you can see almost everything that's happened with the party since it was made." Yang's look of maximum smugness returned with a vengeance. "Did you girls know that the party was first created under the name 'I can do this all day, Blake?' That was fun to find out."

 _'No, no this can't be happening',_ thought Blake. _'Nobody was supposed to ever see that!'_

Slowly, but surely, all of the eyes in the room turned to face her and she backed against the wall by Yang's bed, all while contemplating her chances of making it out of the window. "Everyone, it's not what you think it is."

"Really?" Yang was now a predator. "And just what was it, if not something a little naughty?"

"It was back when I was avoiding everyone. He kept sending me party invitations; but I was declining them, so he changed the name each time to get me to accept it. That's _it._ "

"Hmmm. The first message did say something about you two needing to talk."

"See? It-"

Yang interrupted with, "So what was it that you two talked about, anyways? Jaune mentioned that it was kinda personal, but..."

Blake's heart seized a little. She wasn't ready for this talk, so she should just deflect it and move on. However, she couldn't help but ask herself if that was still the right thing to do. Could they, somehow, accept her? Would Weiss be okay with having a Faunus on her team?

Her cat ears chose that moment to feel itchy again. The bow was tied tight on them, as always, but at that moment it felt even more constricting than ever before. She knew that she was hiding so many things from her team, but she also knew that her second set of ears would not remain hidden forever. Someday, somehow, they'd be discovered; and the longer it took, the harder it would be to explain.

Blake's mind flashed to when Jaune found out about her in the library. Her first, _primal_ response had been to resort to violence. To threaten his very life just because he happened to figure it out so quickly. She left the White Fang to avoid those kinds of acts, and look at what she did! Was she truly any better than them?

Another memory, this one of Jaune standing up for the Velvet, who could never hope to hide her tall bunny ears. Of Sky Lark following suit, despite the fact that the bully in question was his own leader. Those two had shown in different ways that they were willing to accept the Faunus, and they were farther from her than her own team.

 _'...Jaune shared his secret with everyone, didn't he? So, maybe...'_ She gripped the bedsheets beneath her. Something was entering her mind, and it was telling her that team RWBY was okay. That Ruby, Yang, and even Weiss would accept her as she is. She could never tell them about the White Fang, of course, but...

"Nora," she finally said after what must've been a good minute or two. "I need to talk to my team about something important."

To her credit, Nora didn't ask any questions. "Sure thing. This Valkyrie is headed back across the hall."

The door shut behind her as she left, leaving only the other members of RWBY to look at her with serious expressions to match her own. Ruby, still on the bed, nodded and said, "We're all ears, Blake. What's up?"

She chuckled. "It's funny that you say that, Ruby."

Jaune had accepted her, and had even forgiven her when she directly harmed him over this secret. She could not afford to live in fear of being discovered. Not anymore.

Deftly, Blake reached up and tugged at her bow. It came undone, and within a moment her cat ears were out in the open. They twitched a little as she adjusted to not having the bow tied to them.

Their reactions varied. Yang walked over right away to get a better look while Ruby gasped and looked as if she were about to pet her ears. Weiss froze in the desk chair, evidently shaken by this revelation. Blake decided to vocalize it, more for her sake than anything else. "I am a Faunus. I'm sorry for hiding it from you these past two weeks, but I didn't want anybody to know until now."

The heiress found her words; she didn't look angry, per se, but there was a pronounced frown on her face. "Why would you hide something like this from us? From your team?"

"Because of the discrimination. Because people like Cardin exist, and will do anything in their power to beat us Faunus down."

Ruby stood up and asked, "So this is what Jaune found out?"

"Yes." She scooched to the end of the bed, which put her within arm's reach of Yang; the brawler took the opportunity to gently feel one of her ears. It tickled quite a bit, but she tried to ignore it.

Once Yang had her fill, she stepped back and grinned brightly. "Hey, I think that they're cool and I get to make cat puns from now on, so it's all good in my book. Right, guys?"

"Yep," chirped Ruby. "You're still Blake to me, I just have a better idea of why you were munching on all of those tuna salad sandwiches earlier."

There was a distinct lack of speech from Weiss, and soon Ruby turned to look at her. "Weiss? Are you alright?"

"I..." The heiress drew in a deep breath. "-am a little uneasy right now."

Thump. That was the sound of Blake's heart stopping in fear. Before her mind could spiral too far down, however, Weiss continued speaking. "I have no inherent problem with you being a Faunus; what I take issue with is that you kept it a secret. Can you understand that, Blake?"

There was hope yet, it seemed. "Yes, I can; but I want you to understand why I did it."

"In some respect, I do. One need only look at Winchester's actions yesterday to understand that racial bias is still an issue within the kingdoms." She sighed. "Blake, will you promise to not keep anymore secrets such as that from here on out? We're your teammates, and deserve to be treated as such."

"I promise." The lie hurt just a little bit, but she wasn't about to reveal that she was formerly part of an organization hellbent on fighting the Schnee family. Blake still allowed herself to smile. "Thank you for accepting me. All of you"

Yang threw her hands out wide. "Group hug! That's an order!"

Weiss froze again, and this was an instance that Blake could agree with. "I seem to recall Ruby being our leader."

Their glorious leader proceeded to mimic Yang's actions. "Group hug! That's an order!"

When the Schnee looked at her questioningly, all Blake could do was shrug and allow the huggy two to embrace her. The heiress then sighed once more before stepping in, begrudgingly completing the circle of friendship that the sisters initiated. Blake set aside the embarrassment she felt as she mentally rejoiced in the fact that her team had accepted her as she was. Aa bizarre as they all were, she had friends in the girls that were hugging her.

She also had friends in JNPR, Blake amended quickly. As awful as she'd been, Jaune's actions had encouraged her to do her best. Someday soon, she'd have to truly make it up to him.

-

 **Your closeness with Blake has increased by 3!**

"Huh," I said to myself as Nora began whispering something to Pyrrha. "I wonder what made that happen?"

X

 **Yes, my Muse did just write a Blake-only chapter in a Jaune fic.**

 **Next time we'll get to see Jaune spar against his team, and our Gamer will come to see just what he has and has _not_ done right. I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **For now, GG!**


	17. Chapter 16 - Pride goeth before

**GL; HF**

X

 **You had a restful night's sleep in a bed! HP and AP restored to full.**

I'll tell you what, it's interesting trying to go to sleep when you don't need to anymore. Without any proper 'sleepiness' to knock me out, how long it takes to drift asleep seems to vary wildly; as if a random number generator churns out some unknown countdown from the moment my head hits the pillow that decides when I'll actually pass out. On the plus side, I hadn't had any more of those crazy, hyper-realistic dreams where I fight Grimm off with only my shield.

 _'To whatever program or developer that decides what I dream of, could I be X-Ray instead of Vav next time? Thanks.'_

I waited a moment before rolling out of bed, curious to see if I'd receive a response from the system. When no new message appeared, I shrugged my shoulders and kicked off my covers. It was just before dawn, so I was the only person awake in the dorm room as per usual. I briefly contemplated taking a shower before deciding against it; we had a team training session later that day, and would likely have to shower afterwards anyways.

Bored, I began going over my own status and skills, formulating attack plans where I could. _'Once my STR gets higher and I can use Scorpion's spear to pull opponents with only one hand, I wonder if I can chain it with a hadouken? Hit 'em with it they're flying through the air... That'd be cool. Can I use Aura control to alter the spear at all? Probably have to practice that a little.'_

As I glanced at my inventory screen, I was reminded of the fact that there was still a TM I hadn't used yet. Putting my hand into the appropriate slot, I yanked out the Metal Gear Rising game case and touched the disk.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Ripper Mode"?**

A part of me wished that I could see the official skill description _before_ I scanned the disc, but with a Semblance as bizarre as mine there was little reason to hope that things would ever be convenient or simple. Useful, certainly; but never easy to understand.

I hit 'Yes', and the game was consumed like all the others.

 **You have learned the skill "Ripper Mode!"**

 **~Ripper Mode** **(** **Active) LV: 1 AP cost: 15 Per Second**

 **A unique skill courtesy of Raiden AKA Jack "the Ripper". By activating Ripper Mode, one gains incredible strength at the cost of shifting to something a little "unhinged." The specifics of this state vary by user.**

 **Inflicts [Frenzy] status on user, ignoring any skills or item effects that would negate this status. STR and DEX receive drastic bonuses while temporarily sacrificing WIS.**

 **This skill gains experience based on the number of seconds spent in this state. Skill will automatically deactivate if the user is rendered unconscious or when AP is reduced to 1. Skill may be deactivated manually.** **Higher levels will have slightly mitigated AP costs.**

 _"Well, there goes any hope of Gamer's Mind helping me out."_ Not only did it confirm that it would send me into some kind of murderous rampage, it would suck my Aura dry within _two minutes_. I immediately felt a bit of buyer's remorse, especially since I knew that I could only have one skill per franchise.

Feeling a strange sense of desperation, I reached out to the Game in earnest. _"Game, is there any way of deleting a skill so I can learn a different one?"_

This time, I got an answer.

 **Feature not available at this time.**

In frustration, I closed the empty case and threw it into the trash can; it clanged off the the interior wall of the can as it went in.

"...Mmm?"

Behind me, Pyrrha began to shuffle around in her bed before sitting up and looking at me. She had to stifle a yawn as she asked, "...Is everything alright? I thought I heard something..."

Cursing myself for waking her up, I whispered back, "That was me, Pyrrha; sorry about that. You can go back to sleep if you want."

Slowly, she reached over to her nightstand and checked the time on her scroll. "It's a little early," she responded just as quietly, "but that's okay. I'll go ahead and get up."

"Sorry again." She casually waved my apology away as she got out of bed and stretched her body. She briefly walked into the restroom, and I could see her run the faucet and splash her face with some water to wake up. Thankfully, my brief tantrum hadn't disturbed Nora or Ren from their slumber, so I did my best to stay quiet as I put on a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and a blue running jacket.

When Pyrrha returned I said to her, "I'm going for a walk, 'cause I don't want to wake up our sleeping beauties here like I did you."

"Would you mind if I kept you company?" Her emerald eyes glinted in the dim lighting of the room. "I'm still trying to get into my early morning routine from Mistral, so a walk would do me some good."

Hadn't she already managed to adjust? "Of course you can, Pyrrha. I'll be outside while you get dressed."

Pyrrha put on red running pants with matching jacket, and a couple minutes later we were walking through the silent halls of the school. As we walked, I decided to make some conversation with my partner. "So, Pyrrha, what's Mistral like? You haven't talked about it much."

"It's a nice place to live, although it's considerably more extravagant than Vale is. The capital city is particularly mountainous, so throughout the years the people have been building structures in what few places they could. Many locations have to be connected by bridges."

"It sounds like you'd have to walk a lot to get from A to B. At least you'd get some good cardio in."

"You do," she confirmed with a chuckle. "Honestly, I must say that I prefer Vale so far. I've already made good friends here; and, while I miss my parents, I don't miss..."

She trailed off a little, and I could feel her mirth slip away a little. "You don't miss what?"

Pyrrha took a moment before answering. "I don't miss the attention I'd often receive from the media and my fans. By the time I left Mistral for Beacon, I was feeling quite stifled by everyone's... adoration."

The words Weiss spoke before initiation sprang to mind. _"Don't you know who this is?!"_

Pyrrha Nikos. Four-time tournament champion, top of her class at Sanctum, and the current face of Pumpkin Pete's cereal. I'd only ever known her as the latter, without even knowing her _name_ , but to the world at large- "Do you... hate being famous, Pyrrha?"

Unbeknownst to us, our feet had led us to the front courtyard of the school. When we hit the fresh air, the pre-dawn light still managed to catch her hair a little. "I don't hate the people that look up to me, no; but, I do wish that I could show my face in public without having to hide who I am. 'Take a picture, sign this napkin,' so on and so forth. That's why I'm so grateful to have met you, Jaune."

"Me? What did I do?"

"You saw me for me." Pyrrha looked at me then, and I could see her face warming up with a smile. "When we first met, you only figured out who I was when Weiss gave you clue after clue, and even after that you haven't treated me any differently because of it. So, thank you, Jaune; thank you for being- well, you."

"It's my pleasure." I reached my hand up to her shoulder and gave her a light squeeze. "You're my partner, Pyr, and I'm glad you're the one that saved me from slamming the ground at initiation."

 **Your closeness with Pyrrha has increased by 2!**

"Pyr..." She slowly reached her hand up to the one that was touching her shoulder and removed it. I briefly thought that she just wanted me to take it off, but that idea left when she wrapped her fingers around mine. "I like that name."

We walked like that for a little while, soaking in the pleasant atmosphere. Although, I'll admit that I couldn't help but tease her. "Maybe you could stop putting holes into my hoodie, though."

"I'm sorry!"

Time passed, a hearty breakfast was consumed, and before too long it was time for the team JNPR sparring session. We booked a training room courtesy of Professor Goodwitch and got ourselves combat ready. The training room didn't have any stands like the regular classrom, only some benches that lined the walls just outside of the designated arena and an electronic board that would display our Aura levels.

Pyrrha insisted that we stretch before exercising (which we agreed to) while Nora wanted to start with some arm wrestling (which we did _not_ ), but eventually it was time to get going. I addressed the group by saying, "Alright, guys, how do you wanna do this?"

Ren raised a hand. "How about we use the classroom rules?"

"Sounds good to me. Who's going first?"

Magnhild was hoisted way above Nora's head in her excitement. "Ooh, ooh, how about you and me, fearless leader? I've been wanting to fight you ever since you took on Sky!"

I blinked. "Outside of the fireball-to-the-face part, I don't remember that fight being anything special."

"Yeah, well, maybe it wasn't," she flippantly admitted, "but that cool thing you did where you calmed him down? Straight out of a movie! You were all 'ease your mind, young grasshopper." The rest of us laughed at her terrible impression, which of course only made her grin even wider. As Ren gently corrected her by correctly quoting me, I 'observed' her stats.

 **Nora Valkyrie**

 **Title: The Bubbly Thunder-God**

 **LV: 40**

 **HP: 1200/1200**

 **AP: 1600/1600**

 **STR: 59**

 **DEX:** **27**

 **CON: 40**

 **INT: 28**

 **WIS: 33**

 **CHA: 30**

 **Choose your** **quest!**

 **(Normal) Challenge Ren!**

 **The quietest of JNPR, but no less of a foe for it. Take down the martial artist!**

 **Reward: 50,000 EXP, increased closeness with Ren.**

 **Failure: 1,000 EXP**

 **(Expert) Nora's showdown!**

 **The 'N' of JNPR has thrown down the gauntlet... again, in a manner of speaking. Prepare yourself for your most electrifying opponent yet!**

 **Reward: 100,000 EXP, increased closeness with Nora.**

 **Failure: 1 EXP.**

I considered choosing Ren, but a part of me wanted to make the most of my newly acquired title. I changed my title to "Expert Seeker" to take advantage of the situation and said, "If that's what you want, Nora. Let's sync our scrolls to the screen."

A moment later, Nora and I had taken our positions and were waiting for our cue. Ren stood just outside of the ring with his hand high in the air, looking back and forth between us. "Three-"

Nora's hands gripped magnhild tighter. "-two-"

I shifted my sword arm out a little bit. "-one-"

Ren's hand chopped down fiercely, and we were off; well, Nora was at least, because she leapt straight at me with her hammer on a collision course for my body. Even as Gamer's Mind actually kicked in to start processing the fight, I didn't need it to tell me that remaining where I stood was a _bad idea_.

 _Slam!_

Kudos to whoever created the arena, because it remained hardy and whole as the ginger unleashed her full might onto the spot I'd just vacated. I swiped Crocea Mors along the ground and ignited a Demon Fang, which Nora blocked by shifting her weight opposite of the wave and letting the grounded hammer head take the hit. The impact caused her arms to buckle a slight amount before she picked the hammer up and set herself into a low-and-wide stance. "You better try harder than that, Jaune-Jaune!"

 **AP: 1000 - 950**

"I'm just getting started!"

Nora suddenly blew a raspberry at me. "That cliche line; really?"

"...Sorry." Well, I thought it was cool. Nora shifted Magnhild into it's more portable form and launched three grenades in quick succession. I dodged the first two by jumping to the left each time, but the third shot was spaced in just such a way that I had to jump backwards to avoid the blast radius. I was about to charge towards her, but noticed that she'd started running towards _me_ and brought my shield to the ready.

She remained grounded rather than jump again, making a small diagonal swing that I deflected to the side with my shield before aiming Crocea Mors at her chest with a stab, which she dodged by leaning hard to her left. Nora retreated a step, and I made to advance before seeing her bring Magnhild behind her in what looked to be a haymaker of a swing. If I fully stepped in now I'd be crushed, but if I baited it...

I feinted a forward step, and her hammer launched in for a _wide_ horizontal swing. The swing was slow, and as it started to pass I saw a perfect opportunity to retaliate. My sword arm went wide to punish her apparent aggression, but it turned out that I was wrong about that supposed opportunity.

Already stepping in to attack, an alarm blared in my mind as I noticed that her swing, while slow and wide, was still very much in control. Nora's finger pressed the trigger and the last thing I heard was the sound of a grenade firing from the head, the force of the grenade launch rapidly sending the backside of the hammer head into the lower-right quadrant of my torso.

 **HP: 750 - 531**

 **AP: 950 - 293**

Life took on new meaning as I gained a sudden and profound insight into the world of being a bowling pin. Launched off of my feet, I was sent sprawling onto the ground in what, from an outside point of view, could only have been a comical fashion. By some miracle I'd managed to hold onto my equipment, so once my momentum stopped I tried to get to my feet.

"Jaune!" Before I could, however, Pyrrha was right there beside me. "Are you okay? Talk to me."

I got up to my knees as I responded, "Pyrrha, I'm fine; I can still fight."

Ren poked his head out from behind my partner. "Actually, you just lost by ring out."

"Huh?" A glance at the ground revealed that I was no longer in the ring. Nora had sent me so far, in fact, that I was all of a few feet from the entrance wall.

 **Quest failed.**

 **You earned 1 EXP.**

 _'Th-that was it? I lost just like that? In one hit?!'_ Numbly, I got to my feet with Pyrrha supporting me. "O-oh, alright. Um, good match, Nora."

Nora, for her part, seemed honestly apologetic. "Sorry about that, Jaune; but when I thought that I could get you with that trick, I just kinda..."

"No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. It was a fight." No, it wasn't; it was a one-sided beatdown. We all saw it, even if nobody said it. "Pyrrha, Ren, go ahead and start your spar. I'm... just gonna sit for a minute."

I sheathed Crocea Mors and walked the three steps required to reach one of the benches. Ren went to reset the computer while Pyrrha gave me another worried look, so I waved her away with a false smile.

"Observe" told me that she wasn't put at ease, but she nonetheless left me on my own while Nora acted as referee.

I was hurting; not physically, as that was mitigated by both my Aura and Gamer's body, but emotionally. The disparity between myself and my better classmates was starting to make itself known; against Ruby it had at least been a fight, but Nora crushed me in record time. What would it take for me to reach their level? Was the difference between our skill and power _that_ great because I hadn't attended a combat school?

Pyrrha won in the end, to nobody's surprise, but Ren had done his best to pepper her with automatic gunfire before getting in close. The original plan for the session had been for us to possibly spar twice, but my obvious inability to rally myself for a second match stopped that thought cold. We gathered our belongings, put our equipment away in the lockers, and started our trek back to the dorm room. Before we made it halfway, I sighed and stopped walking with them. Pyrrha noticed and turned to me, frowning, while the other two continued on. "Is everything okay, Jaune?"

No, not that I would say that. "Yeah, I'm just gonna head to the library for a bit."

"Oh. Any particular reason? I could help you with whatever it is."

"Actually, I'd... rather go by myself." I rolled my shoulders in what might've been a shrug. "Sorry."

She shook her head. "Don't be. I'll see you later, I suppose."

"Yeah. Later, Pyrrha." Leaving a dissatisfied Pyrrha behind, I walked to the library in no particular hurry, just trying to figure out what to do. My stats were lower than everybody else's, I didn't have the combat experience most of them had, and my Semblance, while powerful, had a whole bunch of kinks in it that I had trouble understanding.

Then again, without my Semblance I wouldn't have even won against Sky, so that was at least one positive. I pulled that one out with the hadouken-

My feet stopped. Wait, that was a decent place to start right there! If I was lacking in combat experience, I just needed to make it up with unique skills until I could catch up. I also needed to grind, _badly_ , because delaying hitting the workout room for two weeks was clearly costing me already.

Whipping out my scroll, I dialed the number for Blossom's store. He picked up within two rings. "Jaune, is that you? Come to ask for more work, eh?"

"Yes, if you don't mind. Is today a good day for that?"

"I wish I could say I need you, but I already have some help here."

Somebody was working for him now? "Who is it?"

"You remember that Jade kid you caught trying to steal from my store? Well, I managed to catch the little bugger myself and dragged him to his parents. They weren't too happy to hear that their son was turning into a lil' thief, so I've got myself some cheap labor for a while."

"Ah, congrats, then." So much for making a little Lien to fund my purchases. Still, I at least had some spending money on hand. "Well, I'll still be coming by in a little bit to shop, so I'll see you soon, Blossom."

"See you soon, Jaune."

He hung up the phone, and I checked to make sure I had my wallet. Noting that I did, I nodded to myself and made a beeline for the bullhead docks. The day was still early, and I had some catching up to do.

It was approaching noon by the time I made it to the store, and I was amused to see a little boy with blond hair and light-green eyes sweeping in front of the building; it was the aforementioned thief, of course, so I gave him a little handwave when I got within earshot. "Finally got caught, huh?"

"Hmph." Clearly no more than ten years old, he wearing a plain red t-shirt with jeans, but on top of that was a white apron that just so happened to have a pink ribbon to tie it together. I suspected Blossom was responsible for that. "Whatever. You come to take pictures or somethin'?"

Take an attitude with me, will he? "Nope, I came here to shop. You do look adorable in the apron, though."

He swung the broom at my head, which was easily caught below the head. Chuckling at his agitation, I pushed open the door and breathed in the smell of Mistralian food that hit me; Blossom must've been warming up some leftovers. Pulling out my wallet, I noted that I still had 989 Lien to spend.

It was time to make the most of it.

- **Elsewhere** -

"Ha ha! I'm glad you young men have gotten the hang of this! Next, we'll work on felling some trees with our bare hands."

Cardin wanted nothing more than to throttle Port with his "bare hands," but they'd learned on the first day that the overweight professor could fight perfectly well even without a weapon. Russel and Dove were catching their breathes after having moved numerous enormous boulders to build a makeshift shelter, while Cardin himself had been tasked with fishing.

With his bare hands.

Throwing the last of the caught trout into their makeshift wicker basket, Winchester followed the babbling teacher to find what was supposed to be the best trees for firewood. As he tuned out the story that came spilling out, Cardin swore on his family's name that they would pay. Sky the freak lover and traitor, Jaune the stupid playboy-

They would pay dearly for crossing him.

X

 **This chapter is small, my apologies, but it's a lead-in to what will be, hands _down_ , my single largest chapter ever. We also see Jaune starting to struggle with his lack of experience, which will be important going forward.**

 **Currently taking bets! Will Cardin and co. receive some type of redemption in the end? I know the answer, of course, but I want to see what you all think will happen.**

 **Have a nice day/night; and for now, GG!**


	18. Chapter 17 - The Forever Fall

**Special thanks to DragonManMax for helping this chapter flow better. If you haven't read any of his stuff, I recommend checking him out after you're done here. I guarantee you'll have a blast.**

 **GL; HF!**

X

I was the only person in the shop, not counting Blossom being in the back, so I took a moment to review the notes from my last visit. I'd already used the Zelda and Final Fantasy TM's, meaning all that I had left was the Mega Man list.

[Mega Man Skill List:

MM - Rolling Cutter, MM 2 - Leaf Shield, MM 3 - Shadow Blade

MM 4 - Ring Boomerang, MM 5 - Charge Kick, MM 6 - Flame Blast

X 1 - Shotgun Ice, X 2 - Bubble Splash, X 3 - Air Dash

X 4 - "Weapon Tank", X 5 - W-Shredder, X 6 - Hyoroga

Zero - Summon "Triple Rod", Zero 2 - Summon "Chain Rod", Zero 3 - Summon "Recoil Rod"

Zero 4 - Sky Chaser, Legends - Vacuum Arm]

I scratched out the Zero games on the grounds that I didn't want to learn a whole new fighting style with weird weapons, and the Vacuum Arm was also nixed because, well, wouldn't that be a waste? Leaf Shield didn't interest me, Rolling Cutter would probably be difficult to use, Bubble Splash would _definitely_ be difficult to use...

My eyes stopped scrolling the page as I looked at the Weapon Tank skill. In X4 it was used to refill your special weapon energy to full; so, would that translate to filling up my AP? It's not like I had an MP bar, so the skill being an AP battery is the only thing that would make sense.

I re-scanned the list, but only Shotgun Ice and Air Dash really caught my attention. Freezing somebody for a moment and aerial mobility... _'Ice powers are popular enough that I could find them in another series, but extra movement when I jump would be a huge boost that might not be as easy to replace.'_

Still, being able to go from zero AP to full in a heartbeat? There could hardly be a better boon for any fighter! Making up my mind, I walked over to the PlayStation games and quickly located my desired prize. It would cost me 202 Lien, leaving me with 787 to spend. So, what next?

Blossom's voice arose from the counter. "Find anything you like?"

I smiled and turned to face him. "Oh, yeah. How are thi- woah. You cut your hair?"

The older man had, to my recollection at least, always had his dim red hair down to his shoulders if not past that; now, however, it couldn't have been any longer than my own hair. His blue eyes sparkled with amusement as he ran a hand through his shortened mane. "Yeah, finally decided that it was more hassle than it's worth to keep it. Whatcha think?"

"I think I looks fine, but my sister might disagree with me." Blossom snorted in response.

"You tell Autumn that she's too young to be going for an old fart like me. Anyways, I'm gonna eat as long as no other customers are here. Holler for me if someone walks in."

"Will do." Once he disappeared, I began to contemplate what series I would dig through next. Pokemon came to mind, though the prices for those games almost never dropped. The Halo franchise would be a good place to start, though I wondered if I would need to learn how to use a gun-

 **Thump!**

Something hit the shop door, though I couldn't see what it was from my angle. As I walked through the store to identify the source, the door opened to admit an brown-haired man with gray eyes. He was clearly a Faunus, as there was a pair of boar-like tusks on his face. Putting my curiosity on pause, I called out to the back with, "You've got a customer, Blossom!"

"Be right there!"

I was about to return to my game search, but the Faunus man had other ideas; all but stomping up to me, he put his face way to close to mine and growled out, "Blossom and I have some business to discuss. Store's closed, kid."

"What?" It wasn't my most elegant reply ever, but can you blame me for being confused and a little concerned? This unknown guy walked in and was pretty clearly about to start something with my family's friend. "I think I have the same right to be here you do, sir."

He became got louder as he got uncomfortably close. "I didn't stutter. *Leave.*"

"What the hell is going on out here?" Blossom came out to the store floor, though he stopped when he got a look at the intruder. His jaw clenched as he said, "Jaune, go back for now. You can pay for that game next time you come in."

Right at that moment, I wished that I had stored Crocea Mors in my inventory instead of in my locker. Stepping towards my friend without letting my eyes leave the Faunus, I spoke lowly and asked, "Blossom, do you need help? Just because I don't have my gear doesn't mean I can't fight this guy off."

He only sighed. "Thanks, but a Huntsman ain't needed right now. Just go back, and send Jade home if he hasn't left already. I'll be fine, promise."

His tone was gentle yet firm, denying me any chance for a rebuttal. Obeying orders, I observed the man as I walked out.

 **Crimson Parker**

 **LV: 25**

Crimson. I would remember that name.

Stepping out into the Sun, the first thing I noticed was that Jade was patting himself down, apparently trying to shake some dirt off. "You okay, Jade?"

"Yeah, yeah, just that jerk you saw in there told me to 'run on home, kid' and shoved me into the door when I didn't move. Ass."

Crimson did that to a child? What in the world was his problem? "Sorry that happened, man, but Blossom wanted me to tell you to go home for the day."

"Seriously?" I confirmed it with a nod, which only made him roll his eyes. "Great, so this was a waste of time."

My first instinct was to try and Cure him, but I refrained when Observe showed that he hadn't sustained any actual harm. Jade walked off, mumbling to himself as he removed the apron. I got a bad taste in my mouth as I regretted not decking Crimson when I had the chance, but I had to believe that Blossom knew… Whatever he was doing better than I did.

But boy did I hate it.

Wishing I could see into the shop with my mind, I departed with a heavy heart and a clouded mind. For lack of anything to do out in Vale, I made my way to the bullhead station and took the first available one to Beacon. Since I happened to be by myself, I went ahead and popped open Mega Man X4.

 **You have obtained a Technical Machine! Would you like to learn the skill "Weapon Tank"?**

Yes.

 **You have learned the skill "Weapon Tank"!**

 **~Weapon Tank (Passive/Special)**

 **Introduced in the fourth X game, this power-up allowed X and Zero to refill their special weapons to full. Due to system limitations, the version you've unlocked is a unique variant.**

 **By resting in a bed, the user creates a supplemental energy supply that may be used as an alternative to AP for using skills. The storage capacity of this supply is equal to the user's max AP. Unlike AP, this supply will not refill automatically out-of-combat.**

 **This supply may not be used to cover AP loss when receiving damage. The usage of this supply can be toggled on or off by selecting this skill in the menu.**

It was free energy as I expected, but the conditions for it weren't exactly ideal. By sacrificing time that could be spent awake and doing other things, I would essentially double my Aura… except for getting hit. Ultimately it wasn't as flexible as I'd hoped it would be, but at least it wasn't useless. Bringing up the skill menu, I looked down to see-

 **Weapon tank: 0/1000 (Currently: off)**

 _'I'll sleep tonight to go ahead and fill it up.'_ With that settled, I decided that it was time to do what I had been putting off doing: Hit the gym. I went to the dorm room and put on some workout clothes, bringing the clothes I just removed to stick in the locker. I briefly wondered how long a stat boost would take to earn. Maybe I should ask for advice when I get there? Surely there would be somebody there who could offer some tips.

That train of thought wound up being right on the nose, as one of the several people I found occupying a bench press was Nora, and she was busy lifting what seemed to be an ungodly amount of weight. She noticed me as I approached, and without missing a rep shouted, "Hey, fearless leader! Would you mind spotting me while I finish this set?"

I chuckled as I sat down behind her. "Sure, just don't hit me with that bar. With all those weights, I bet it's twice as heavy as your hammer."

"Give or take a few pounds, yeah." With that shockingly honest answer, she pumped out twenty more reps before deciding to put the bar up. Once it was racked, she sat up and smiled at me. "So, has our leader come here to strut his stuff?"

"Kinda?" I rubbed the back of my head out of embarrassment. "I want to start at least a semi-regular workout routine, but I don't have a clue how to do it. Can you give me some tips?"

Oddly, Nora froze right in her seat and seemed unable to form words with her mouth. _'Oh no. I didn't break her, did I?'_

 **Your closeness with Nora has increased by 1!**

Suddenly, she grabbed both of my shoulders and hoisted me into the air for a bear hug. "Ooooh, you have no idea how happy you just made me!"

 **Oxygen gauge, depleting.**

I somehow managed to wheeze out, "I think I have an idea…"

"No, really! Ren stopped working out in a gym with me so long ago, I've almost forgotten what it's like to coach people!" She dropped me with a thump before grabbing my hand to prevent me from falling all the way on the ground. "Well, Jaune-Jaune, for the next hour you have yourself a personal fitness instructor! Now, tell me: What's your max on benching and squats?"

"Um… I don't know?"

That grin could've scared a beowolf away.

X

 **Thanks to a steady workout, your CON has increased by 1!**

That message came at about the seventy minute mark. Yes, ten minutes past the hour she told me, all so she could push me as far as I could go on the various machines. Unable to dismiss the message with my hands occupied, I simply kept benching the bar that seemed suspiciously heavier than it was two sets prior. We were finishing on low-weight, high-rep sets, but that did little to ease the burn my entire body was feeling.

Forty-two, forty-three, forty-four…

"Hey, Jaune-Jaune?"

"Yes, Nora?" Forty-five, forty-six…

"I'm glad you aren't mad at me."

On forty-seven, my hands stopped in the up position as I tilted my head to look at her. "Why would I be mad at you?"

Nora copied my earlier gesture by rubbing her head nervously. "Well, you seemed kinda stunned when I beat you, so I was worried that you might not like me right now. That's really why I was so happy when you asked for help."

"Oh." Pressing thrice more to make it an even fifty, I put the bar up before responding. "I mean, I was upset, yeah; but I wasn't mad at you, honest. I was more frustrated with myself for being taken out so easily. You didn't do anything wrong."

 **Your closeness with Nora has increased by 1!**

"Aww." She gave my shoulder a playful slap. "Thanks, fearless leader. Now, come on, just twenty-five more! Finish this set in style!"

"Yes, Major Valkyrie." Happy to play along, I reset my body position and started to pump that iron. _'Once again, Me, you're the leader. You have to watch what you do, otherwise your friends will get discouraged.'_

Two, three, four…

 _'As hard as the last hour's been, she did give me some good advice.'_

Seven, eight, nine…

 _'If I don't need sleep outside of charging that tank, maybe I could work out some nights? Or is this room closed past a certain time?'_

Twelve, thirteen, four-

 **Thanks to a strenuous workout, your STR has increased-**

 **ERROR.**

"What?!" The bar went awry as I was caught off-guard by a loud "EH-EH" sound effect; thankfully, Nora had her hands on it immediately and helped me guide it back to the rack. Getting my bearings back, I sat up and looked at Nora and the error message at the same time. "T-thanks for the help, Nora."

"No problem, Jaune, but I think you're done for the day. Good workout, though!" She stood up and flashed another smile. "I'm gonna go eat now; post-workout meals are always the best. Catch you later!"

She disappeared in the general direction of the girl's locker room, leaving me to stare at my game notification.

 **Error type: Invalid value. Unable to add earned point to [STR].**

 **Determining cause…**

 **Cause found. [STR] was improperly calculated upon system start. Attempting to correct…**

 **Error. Cannot determine true value at this time. Please be patient while a fix for this is created.**

My jaw hung loose as I processed it all. _'What the actual hell is wrong with my Semblance? If there was a number issue, wouldn't it have popped up when I used my SP to bump my stats? Or is it because this was a stat point I actually grinded for?'_

I shook my head and started walking to the showers. _'Should I even bother training until this gets patched? I'd hate for any effort to be wasted because of some- glitch, I guess.'_

I was beyond frustrated now, as it felt like the cracks in my Semblances foundation were starting to show. As I turned on the locker room shower and let the hot water wash the sweat off of me, I prayed that all of the kinks in my powers would work themselves out.

I was reminded of a quote from a game, of all things. Without control, can you call it power?

X

If he were to be honest, Sky Lark didn't enjoy being by himself for long periods of time. There was no deep-seated trauma behind that trait, just a general need to be around people. That's why even if he hated his teammates for the abuse they dished out to him, he missed the noise that used to fill the room before they were taken "camping" by Professor Port.

It was something he'd dealt with all throughout his childhood, really. Don't wanna be alone? Then do what the cool kids are doing. Try to fit in, even if you disagree with what's going on. That's why he made it a point to spend as much time with his surprise new friends at Beacon: It enabled him to ignore the hollow ambience of a dorm room only he was sleeping in.

On Monday, he spent his free time hanging out with team JNPR (and by extension team RWBY) during meals. There was an undeniable camaraderie between the two teams, and he seemed to have been accepted into the pack after sticking up for Velvet. If he said something he'd actually get a response, usually a joke from Yang, which was a welcome breath of fresh air compared to Cardin's policy of "it's all about me."

For example…

"So you guys actually had to fight a deathstalker and a giant nevermore in initiation?" His eyebrows went wide as Ruby nodded while drinking from her milk box. "Just what in the world happened to make that a thing?"

Weiss Schnee gave a huff. "My partner here decided to cut down a tree while she and I were having a disagreement. It was the wrong tree."

"Yeah, well, at least you didn't ignore some obvious signs." Jaune rubbed his forehead as he recalled his folly. "Hand-painted warnings to not go into a cave, and I led Pyrrha straight in there. I got sent flying for that."

Pyrrha reached over and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "But all's well that ends well, Jaune. We got through the ordeal together."

"Yeah!" Nora jumped up and put her foot on the table dramatically. "Both fearless leaders here gave perfect order after perfect order, all culminating in the two titanic Grimm being turned into beautiful fireworks!"

Sky could only blink at her proclamation, which led Ren to lean towards him and say, "If you're going to be around us, it would be wise to learn how to decipher Nora's exaggerations."

"Noted."

They were an eclectic group, but it just seemed to work. He spent that night dreaming about what life would be like if he were actually on one of their teams.

On Tuesday, much to his surprise, he wound up sitting with Velvet Scarlatina, who introduced him to team CFVY. (Is coffee an actual color, he asked himself) Velvet's partner was Yatsuhashi, then there was Fox, and finally-

"So this is the other boy our little Velv told us about." Coco did circles around him, judging him with her shade-covered eyes on a scale he couldn't figure out. She eventually settled for standing in front of him with her arms crossed, a light smirk on her face. "That Arc boy may have stood up to the bully, but it was you that decked your own team leader, right?"

"Uh, yep, that was me." Smooth, Sky. "I hope you haven't heard anything bad…?"

"Bad? Are you kidding me? Velvet was almost over the moon that two strangers would go that far."

"Coco!" Velvet tried to hush her leader with little success. Sky had thought her to be the shy type, but it turned out that Velvet was actually a pretty energetic and outgoing soul around the right people. "There's no need to embarrass me like this, and you're making him nervous."

She kinda was.

Yatsuhashi, giant that he was, nodded gently at him. "We thank you for protecting our teammate while we weren't there. Many people tend to avoid acknowledging such situations."

"You can thank Jaune for giving me the courage to do it."

"Come." Fox gestured to the table they were situated at. Was he blind with those blank eyes, or…? "Please, have a seat. We'd love to have you."

That was when he remembered that he was still holding his lunch tray. "Ah, right. Thank you."

He sat next to Velvet, and before long Coco had begun to ask him about how he styled his hair, of all things. He was happy to talk with them, and every time his eyes met with those of the bunny Faunus beside him, he smiled and felt happy knowing that he had done the right thing by going against Cardin.

Until that evening, that is.

That night, Sky was about to head to sleep when the dorm room door opened to admit his three missing teammates. Cardin took one look at him before going 'tch' and stomping off into the bathroom while Russell and Dove awaited their turns to use the shower. Nobody addressed him directly; it was better than being attacked again, he would freely admit, but he couldn't shake the notion that he was being glared at behind his back.

He had a bad feeling about this.

X

 **Jaune Arc**

 **LV: 14**

 **Title: Expert Seeker**

 **HP: 780/780**

 **AP: 1040/1040**

 **Weapon Tank: 1040/1040 (Currently: On)**

 **STR: ERR**

 **DEX: 20**

 **CON: 26**

 **INT: 18**

 **WIS: 18**

 **CHA: 28**

I sighed for the umpteenth time as the bullhead carrying my team began to liftoff for our field trip to Forever Fall. Despite my hopes and prayers, this status still greeted me each morning, and quite frankly I was getting tired of waiting for it to change. Was my developer so lazy that he couldn't fix a value problem?

Pyrrha, who stood right beside me on the transport, frowned as looked at me. "Jaune, is everything okay? You've been down for a few days now."

"I'm fine, Pyrrha. Promise." I flashed her a smile; while she did back down from it, I didn't need Observe to tell me she didn't buy it. It was just so difficult being motivated for anything while my Semblance was acting up.

 **[Motion Sickness] has been negated by Gamer's Mind!**

Well, at least I still had that going for me.

I was temporarily pulled from my thoughts once the bullhead landed and we got to see Forever Fall from the inside: A stunning, almost ethereal setting where the trees lived up to the given name of being right at that point where the leaves were turning color. As she set out a collection of empty, glass jars for us to grab, Goodwitch gave us a spiel that the forest was still dangerous despite its beauty. Our job was to gather at least one jar of tree sap for each person for Professor Peach. Why we were collecting sap was beyond me, but I wasn't going to complain about being on a field trip for a day.

As we walked a ways into the forest, I was noticed the sound of footsteps behind us and turned to see Sky carrying a jar of his own. "Hey, guys. Mind if I join you? Cardin and company left me behind as soon as we landed."

"Glad to have you aboard. They came back from their punishment?"

"Yeah, last night. Didn't say a word to me when they returned. I'd like to say it makes me feel better, but…"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Any sane person would doubt that a simple punishment would deter bullying behavior, so I couldn't blame him for being cautious.

Finding a small cluster of trees, I decided that this was as good a spot as any and drove the spike that had been issued to me into a nearby tree. My friends had found trees of their own already, so while I waited for the sap to pour out, I leaned my back against the tree and said, "This really is a gorgeous place, isn't it?"

"It truly is." Pyrrha smiled in fondness as she took in the view. "It's shame that this forest is filled with Grimm, otherwise this would be a perfect location for camping or picnics."

Ren scratched his chin in thought. "I wonder if there are any herbs indigenous only to this area? I would love to experiment with some more remedies and health drinks."

Sky raised an eyebrow. "Herbal health drinks?"

"No!" Nora jumped towards Sky with a finger pointed at his nose. "As your new friend, it is our duty to warn you to stay away from Ren's drinks! They're poison!"

"They're _healthy_ ," insisted Ren without raising his voice. "Wait, Nora, have you already starting eating some of it?"

A glance revealed that her glass jar had the markings of the sap having been in there, yet it was strangely empty of said sap. Nora quickly licked the end of the finger she had shoved in Sky's face, trying to get rid of evidence. "You can't prove it."

Pyrrha and I laughed while Ren accosted her, although I felt the strangest… of… itches…

"A- _CHOO_!" It felt a little like my soul was leaving my body from the force of sneeze. Why-?!

 **You have been inflicted with the status [Moderate Allergies (Tree sap)].**

Oh, son of a- "A-choo! Nooo~" My voice had already begun to sound nasally, and I separated from the offending tree in the hopes that it would soon pass. Addressing the group, I asked, "Gys? Do I hab any sab on meh?"

"On your back, and a little on your hand. It's on the armor and your hoodie," answered Ren. "Are you by any chance allergic to the sap?"

"Yeb-" Another sneeze threatened to hit, but I managed to hold that one in. I needed to get rid of the sap, though, which would require stripping down to my undershirt and washing my hands off. "Wata. Is there any wata around?"

Pyrrha glanced around the forest. "According to the map we saw before we departed, there might be a stream a little ways to the east."

Rather than answer verbally, I simply gave a thumbs up and began walking in the indicated direction, unclasping my armor as I travelled. Sky quickly fell into step with me, and when I looked at him he said, "I told them that I'll back you up. There are Grimm around, after all."

"Tank you." Managing to get my hoodie over my head, I did my best to keep my sap-covered fingers from touching any other part of my body as we searched for the stream. We found it after a couple minutes of walking, and I immediately dipped my hands and face into the water, the cool liquid serving to drain the mucus that had begun to pour from my nose. Once I pulled my head out, I felt quite a bit better even if the fog in my head hadn't quite cleared. "Much better, thank goodness."

"Welcome back to the land of the living," chuckled Sky. "I'd suggest not messing with the sap when we get back to your team."

"No kidding." I continued to splash my face with water, hoping that it would help relieve me of my symptoms. "At least the jar should be full by then, so I can probably ask Ren to-"

 **The skill level of [Sense Intent] has increased by 1! The range of [Sense Intent] has increased.**

 **You sensed murderous intent!**

Furiously grabbing at Crocea Mors, I managed to unsheathe it and deploy the shield in record time. Sky was alarmed by my sudden action, but I paid him no mind as I glanced towards the bushes the skill pointed me towards. I saw an object flying through the air- no, two objects, one at me and one at Sky, so I jumped to the left to avoid mine.

 _Crack!_

Sky, however, didn't have the benefit of a warning system, and saw the projectile only just before it hit him dead center in his chestplate. A pinkish substance spread over his armor. Was that… tree sap?

"Well, well. It looks like Jauney boy is pretty good at dodging." The haughty voice of Cardin Winchester brought my attention back to the bush, where he and his two minions(?) revealed themselves to have been hiding. They all had their weapons out and ready, sneers plastered on their faces.

It didn't take a genius to know who their intended targets were, and I felt my anger starting to build. "You're really doing this, Cardin? Attacking us when we're separated from our friends?"

"Of course." Cardin's sneer was replaced by a rage of his own as he walked towards us. "You're gonna pay for making fools out of us, out of _me_. And if you die? Well, I'm sure the teachers will understand that the Grimm found you pretty tasty."

Indignation. That's what I felt as my chest began to heave harder and heavier. _'This idiot would honestly attack us in the middle of a Grimm-infested forest? The sheer stupidity of it!'_

Beside me, Sky had his halberd at the ready, but his eyes were flicking nervously between the three opponents. No matter how this went down, somebody was facing two people on their own, and neither of us were anywhere nearly good enough to handle that. Gamer's Mind kicked in to help me analyze the scene and start thinking about how they might fight, but it did nothing to curb the rising tension.

Of all the foolish, moronic, irresponsible crap they could pull, attacking their classmates with the _intent to kill_ had to be high on the list of bad ideas. How could they be so damn-

 _Growl._

Five heads snapped to the tree line, where a group of Ursai were beginning to approach us from. The lead Grimm sniffed the air deeply, and I heard Russell mumble, "They weren't supposed to show up this quick. I mean we heard they like the sap, but this is ridiculous."

The sap? The sap! They'd thrown the sap jars at us to attract the Grimm?! As I realized that, I became acutely aware of the fact that I wasn't wearing any armor. All I had on was a white undershirt and jeans, leading me to feel incredibly unprepared for what was about to happen. How many Ursai were there? Ten. None of them were Ursa majors according to Observe, so it could be manageable between us five.

I just couldn't afford to be hit. No pressure.

Another growl sounded from them, this time indicating that they had spotted us. The lead roared and they charged, so we all braced ourselves for the crash. The first Ursa to reach me gave a hearty swipe, avoided by a wide sidestep to its left and bringing Crocea Mors down on it's head. Unfortunately, the blade bounced off, Gamer's Mind reminding me that they were armored on the top. Its right paw went at me with a backhand that I deflected with the shield, forcing me back several steps by the sheer force of the blow.

Sense Intent blared, and I continued my backward journey on purpose to avoid a second Ursa that barreled through my position. A quick glance revealed that none of my allies were faring any better than I, all of us desperately avoiding attacks while trying to get a few licks in ourselves. Focusing on my first target, I saw it charging at me and decided to try a different tactic. As it brought its mighty paw down, I raised my shield up and braced against the full force of the attack.

 **HP: 780 - 767**

 **AP: 1040 - 1001**

The weight was almost overwhelming, but I managed to shift it just enough with my shield that I created a gap I could plunge my sword into, which I did.

 _Shnk!_

Crocea Mors pierced its stomach deeply, and the Ursa retreated from the pain. While it was a clean hit, it failed to stop the creature completely, and it started to charge at me again while the second Ursa returned to begin its own attack.

This wasn't going to work, I realized. Without armor, all it would take is one blow to put me near-death like Nora had, and two to wipe me out. I needed something decisive, something that could truly turn the tide.

An angry swipe that I dodged with another sideways leap. The Hadouken? Powerful, but I wouldn't have time to charge it. Demon Fang wasn't strong enough, Farore's Wind didn't have a return point set…

Ripper Mode.

I heard a crunch, and a brief look showed that Cardin had managed the crush his first Ursa's head. That was nice for him, but there were still nine other Ursai that needed to be dealt with.

 _'Whatever God or gods are out there, give me strength.'_

Engage Ripper Mode.

 **Gamer's Mind has been disabled!**

 **[Frenzy] status has been self-inflicted by Ripper Mode!**

 **STR is temporarily (ERROR)!**

 **DEX is temporarily 35!**

How could I describe that brief feeling of utter calm? It was bizarre, especially since I knew that I should've launched into a rage of some sort, but when the skill first hit me I felt…

Free. Uninhibited.

The roar of the charging Ursa, the second one, gave that serene me a focus; and when it did, then I felt _really_ happy. I tossed my shield off and gripped Crocea Mors with both hands; all the better to kill with, you see. The Ursa continued barreling straight towards me, unaware or uncaring of my internal change.

It lunged.

I laughed.

Planting my right foot firmly into the ground, I stepped forward with the left and stabbed my sword straight at it. I wound up catching it just below the jaw and in its neck, my limbs buckling slightly as the weight of the monster shifted into the blade. When the Grimm sunk low enough for its legs to touch the ground, I brought Crocea Mors straight down, revealing the inside of the Ursa as I filet'ed it like a fish.

The leftover Ursa paused its charge thanks to the sudden, violent death of its compatriot. I let the moment wash over both of us, content to let the Grimm come at me in its own time. Soon, it reared on to its hind legs and roared in an attempt to intimidate me. My response was to don a manic grin and charge, creating a vertical arc as I swung from the ground up; between my enhanced strength and its lack under-armor to protect it, the only thing that stopped it from being bisected completely was that my sword hadn't reached all the way to its back. It fell backwards, dead before it even hit the ground.

How absolutely _wonderful_ it was to be capable of this! The first slain Ursa had begun to fade away, and while I was admiring my handy work I saw the Grimm leave a memento: A stack of Lien chips.

I'd almost forgotten about the loot system, but with the rediscovery came another reminder. _'That's right… this is all a game! A game just for me!'_

"Raah!" Sky's voice grabbed my attention. Unlike my frantic dodging just prior, he was swinging his halberd wide to keep the two ursai at bay, both of which attempted to claw his arms whenever they extended.

Well that wasn't good at all, was it? Sky was a good NPC; I liked him. Slowly moving behind one of the two Grimm, I decided to copy Nora for a moment and mount it. Getting a four step running start, I leapt on to its back and deftly avoided impaling my own legs on its back-spikes. The Ursa registered my presence as soon as I landed, but it was already too late; Crocea Mors cleaved at the slight gap in the armor where its neck was, and the head unceremoniously flopped onto the forest floor.

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

"Jaune?!" I ignored Sky's startled state; I knew my own name, thank you. His secondary Ursa rose took a swing at me;I avoided it by bending backwards, as I still wasn't too keen on taking a direct hit. I lashed out as I righted my body, scoring a horizontal slice through its hide. It howled, but I wasn't done yet. I swung on impulse, allowing my frenzy to show as Crocea Mors whistled through the air wildly.

Slice. More. Slice. _More!_

It was dead long before the fourth blow, yet the blade connected regardless. My escort job complete, I put Sky out of my mind as I considered leaving the last five Ursai to CRD. Cardin could handle his solo Ursa, but Dove and Russell seemed to be having some trouble. Leave them to their fate?

Nah, I could use the EXP.

Cardin was bashing each swipe of the Ursa's claws away with his mace. Just as the latest attack inches close to his face, I severed the offending arm from the side. Cardin's eyes went wide as I finished the creature off with a simple stab, it already having taken damage from his mace. "Did you think I needed help?!"

That's a weird way of saying thank you. I opened my mouth to retort, but was interrupted by-

 _Thoom!_

-the heavy footsteps of a challenger. From behind a distant tree came a new Ursa, but this one was considerably larger than its predecessors. Each step had weight to it, and my irritation at Cardin was replaced by glee.

 **Ursa Major**

 **LV: 41**

Oh, yes; this one would be a great challenge for me. That said, it would be a bad idea to face that beast and the four smaller ones at the same time, so I decided to pick off the Ursai I could before it reached us.

"Jaune!" I turned my head just enough for Sky to register that I was listening. "I'm gonna go get the rest of your team. We don't need this getting any worse!"

"Go ahead." The Ursai had all been brought in by the sap he'd been hit with, so him doing as suggested would prevent more from arriving anyways.

Actually, that wasn't the whole truth, was it? We'd been taught that Grimm were attracted to negativity, and there was plenty of that going on between Cardin and myself. This feud of his truly was the worst idea. As Sky fled Cardin jumped in swinging at one of Russell's Grimm, so I turned to Dove and committed to the same. In the span of fifteen seconds or so, the remaining four minor Ursai were whittled down to one, with Cardin and Russell confidently tag-teaming the final foe.

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

My position happened to be the furthest from the approaching Ursa, which had noticed our scuffle and decided to join. Confident that I had this all in the bag, I took a step towards it.

 **AP: 1/1040**

 **Weapon Tank: 0/1040**

 **Ripper Mode disengaged.**

My limbs suddenly turned to jelly as exhaustion consumed me. In one fell swoop, I transformed from a confident Ursa slayer into an exhausted puddle on the ground. Holding myself up by my hands, I found myself struggling to adjust back to normal me. What was going on?!

 **Gamer's Mind-**

 **ERROR.**

 **Gamer's Mind has failed to activate.**

 **Gamer's Body has deactivated.**

"Damnit!" The worst possible scenario was happening. Sure, Ripper Mode had helped me kill the smaller Ursa; but now a truly threatening Grimm had appeared, and I'd become dead weight. How long would it take Sky to get back-up?

A ways in front of me, Cardin and Russell had successfully slain the last minor Ursa, and the former had now taken to baiting the Ursa Major. "Come on, buddy! We took care of your little brothers already, and you're only a little bigger than they were!"

A little?! This thing was massive! I tried to rise to my feet, but to no avail; my body had effectively shut down. Some distance behind Cardin, Russell and Dove were squaring up behind him. They had ready'ed their weapons, but they were clearly more than a little tired themselves. Had they taken hits while I wasn't paying attention, or was that just exhaustion?

I tried to use Observe, but no information popped up for any of them. Even that was failing me?!

Cardin swung his hefty mace straight at the Ursa's jaw, but before it connected the beast pulled back and swiftly bat its paw at him. He was immediately knocked on his rear, his mace falling a few feet on the ground away. Dove and Russell froze in horror, and my mouth only managed to get out, "Stop…"

 **Unauthorized command.**

Cardin was going to die. We were all going to die. Was it Cardin's fault for the sap trick, both of our faults for being angry enough to attract a Major Grimm, or just my fault for being weak without my skills? Cardin scooched back in fear as the Ursa stalked ever closer. I may have started to hate Cardin for the things he'd done in the short time I'd known him, but that didn't mean he deserved to die for it. With my limbs and skills failing me, what could I do to fix this?

Distraction? Yes, that was it. Get the Ursa Major to come at me so that they could hit it. Mustering what air in my lungs I could, I managed to shout, "Stop!"

 **Unauthorized command.**

The Grimm didn't acknowledge, continuing its deliberately slow pursuit of Cardin. It knew that it was in control, and it seemed to be savoring the fear he was showing.

...That was it! Negativity! I needed to focus on everything bad that I could and overpower the fear Cardin was letting out. For just a brief moment, I closed my eyes and let everything I'd ever felt consume me. _'Mom, Dad, I'm sorry for being a failure. I'm sorry I couldn't become a hero and live up to our family's legacy. I'm sorry that I'm weak…'_

Opening my eyes, I saw the Ursa make a big sniff, as if something pungent had just hit it. I had to keep going. _'Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, I'm sorry you wound up with a leader like me. If I die here, I- Maybe Sky could join your team. Yeah, Pyrrha can probably lead you all better than I could, anyways…'_

The Ursa turned its head to look at me, but continued to walk as it had been. Cardin slid past his mace as he backed into a tree. More! _'I should never have applied to Beacon. I should never have even bothered to fake my transcripts. I'm not worth the paper. I'm not worth the time. I'm a failure.'_

I opened my mouth one more time. "I-"

I'm a failure. "-Said-"

I'm sorry, everyone.

"- **STOP!** "

 **Unau#########**

I saw red.

That wasn't a metaphor by any stretch, either; my entire field of vision became coated in red, as if someone dumped a thin coat of paint over a canvas. The forest, my classmates, even the Grimm, all varying shades of red. Worst of all, my head suddenly felt like it was being torn in half. I opened my mouth in a wordless scream as an invisible axe dug into my brain. I had to focus past the pain, however, so I began grinding my teeth as I made sure the Ursa was coming after me.

It wasn't; and yet, for some reason, it also wasn't going after Cardin. Instead of attacking any of us, it decided to actually *sit* on its butt and just stare straight at me. No growling, no aggression whatsoever. It was just…

Waiting for something.

Cardin slowly stood up, clearly as confused by the Ursa's behavior as I was. After a short moment, he ran over to grab his fallen mace and barked orders to his team. Or at least I think he did; it was hard to tell with my searing skull. With a wide and heavy swing, the mace met with the side of the Ursa's face with all the force he could muster.

It didn't move, remaining completely still as Dove and Russell ran forward and thrust their weapons as deeply as they could into its hide. Combined with Cardin's blow it seemed to have done the trick, as the Ursa began to fade into smoke like all the others.

The area finally clear, Cardin and the two began talking amongst themselves, sneaking glances at me. To the left of them, Sky returned with my team and even RWBY in tow, all of them running towards me. Why did they look so concer-

 **T̶h̴e̷ ̸s̵y̵s̷t̴e̶m̵ ̶h̴a̶s̴ ̴e̴n̴c̷o̸u̷n̵t̴e̸r̸e̴d̵ ̴a̶ ̴c̸r̴i̷t̵i̸c̴a̷l̶ ̷e̸r̸r̸o̷r̵.̶ ̷T̶h̵e̵ ̴s̵y̵s̸t̴e̶m̵-̸**

I blacked out before my face hit the ground.

X

Darkness. Complete and total isolation.

That was where I found myself when I came to. I couldn't see anything around me, for there was nothing to see at all. I tried moving my hands, only to realize that I either couldn't see my own body, or that I had no body with which to move. All my attempts to have an effect on my surroundings were for naught, so I ultimately decided to wait for this oppressive nightmare to end, floating endlessly in a sea of nothing.

After what may have been a minute or an eternity, I felt the blackness around me shift. Like water draining from a sink, my "body" was pulled in a direction that I could make neither heads nor tails out of. A voiceless presence called to me, and my surroundings shuffled to force me through. Soon the feeling of being pulled eased a little bit, and I realized that I was now distinctly rising upwards as a bubble in water would. Was I waking up?

Before too long I surfaced, bobbing up and down in a pool of some unidentifiable, black substance. The sky above me was an unnatural purple, and as I tried to move again I discovered that I truly was lacking any kind of body. The worst moment, however, came when somebody bent over and picked me up.

No, I thought. This nightmare was just getting started.

My entire sense of self now sat in the cupped hands of a woman unlike anyone I'd ever met. Her hair and skin were all bone white, and she wore a black robe that draped all the way to the ground. And her eyes? Red, with black schlera instead of the normal white. Once you considered the veiny, almost cracked appearance of her skin, she resembled the Grimm far too much for me to feel comfortable being within a mile of her.

"Well, now," she said to herself as much as to me. "This is quite the surprise."

X

 **A/N**

 **Allow me to pre-emptively put some worries at ease: This story will not suddenly swerve into "Edgelord Jaune" territories. The plot point of "things go horribly wrong, and then Jaune meets Salem" has been a thing from day one, however, so I politely ask that you have some faith in me. This was going to happen, even if the specifics of it underwent some minor changes down the line.**

 **This is still Jaune. Promise.**

 **And don't worry about seeing the glitch text all over the place from now on. I love it as an effect, but it would get hella difficult to read if I used it everywhere. It just so happened to serve the purpose I needed for Jaune's power failure here.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

 **Until next time, GG!**


	19. Chapter 18 - Stage One Cleared!

**GL; HF!**

X

The mysterious woman was now holding me with one hand like a snow globe she'd just shaken. I wanted to scream in fear, but nothing came out when I tried; I truly was without a body, it seemed. She was examining me curiously, but what did I look like to her? "When I felt the urge to check on my spawning pools, I never suspected that I would find something so unique. So, a human has managed to connect their soul to my children."

At first I thought she was actually talking to me, but it seemed that she was more just thinking out loud. If I didn't have a body, how could I be hearing-

Wait. I connected my soul to her _children_? This woman really is linked to the Grimm?! "Is it perhaps a Semblance? No, something so paltry wouldn't allow one to survive the journey as this one did; not in such a pure state, at least."

She began to walk, still carrying me in the same way. Was she gliding along the ground, or was that robe just doing a very good job of hiding her feet? "You are an interesting little find. Hmm. I wonder…"

She ceased her steps and raised her left hand, bringing her pointer finger up as if to poke me. No, stay away! Don't touch-

The world went blindingly white, and if I had eyes they would've been shut in an instant. As it was, all I could do was stare as the world began to shift around me once more. What was she doing to me?! Color seeped into the white, but any concrete images blurred past before I could register them. Finally, the white around me transformed into a darkness not unlike what I had first awoken to; however, this time, there was something in front of me that I could focus on.

A picture of a sheet of metal.

There was a screen of sorts in front of me that was a bit like a TV, the quality of the image perfect as I got a good look at something I couldn't make heads or tails out of. All I could tell was that the object in question must've been moving, as it seemed to be shaking a little bit. After a moment, somebody I knew came into the shot. Pyrrha! She looked straight at the camera(?) with a burning sadness to her eyes and opened her mouth to speak; yet despite her lips moving, I couldn't hear a thing. Regardless of the lack of audio, her lips formed the words clearly enough to make out, "Please, wake up!"

I was unconscious, then. Should've been obvious in hindsight, but that did little to explain the last few whatever-time-frame I had experienced. Where the heck was I? Suddenly, the woman's voice from earlier reverberated throughout the darkness that surrounded me. "Such a stunning girl that's worrying over you. She appears to be young, but her armor indicates that she's a warrior. Is she a Huntress-in-training, then?"

Alarm ran throughout my head. The Grimm woman was seeing what I was seeing! Could I cut her off somehow?!

Before that thought could continue, the area around Pyrrha shook, and my view changed as the camera-slash-my vision turned to the right. I was now looking at a closed metal door, and I realized that my body must be in a moving bullhead. At least my team seemed to be safe. I tried to close my body's eyes and strain against the darkness, but the scene before me remained the same. This woman was in complete control of the situation.

The bullhead flight seemed to progress in normal time, with some additional shaking as it traveled. After what felt like a few minutes, the metal door opened as the bullhead began to touch down, revealing the always majestic image of Beacon. Professor Goodwitch appeared and, with a wave of her riding crop, lifted my body from the airship and began to carry me in. "So," continued the woman. "Beacon, is it? That must mean that you yourself are a student."

No! Whatever the hell she was, I couldn't let her see anymore than she already had! I focused my mind as much as I can, trying to close out the screen to no avail.

 _Flash_.

A bright light bloomed from above my position, disrupting the view from my own eyes as the darkness began to pull away from me. The woman made a sound, almost like a chuckle. Was she amused? "How unfortunate; it would seem that you have a helper. Young one, I look forward to your _possibilities_."

The last word rolled off of her tongue, sending shivers through my soul even as her presence disappeared. I no longer felt the overwhelming weight from the darkness, but I still lacked control as my saving grace pulled me "up," for lack of a better word. The area around me turned to gray, then white, and then-

"OOF!" I felt myself be dropped, physically let go, and the air left my lungs as my back hit the ground. Wait, my back? I looked down at myself and realized that I finally had a body. I was dressed in my combat gear, even the hoodie, and when I flexed my muscles I finally felt them respond to my commands. Slowly, I pushed myself to my feet and looked around.

"Well," I commented blandly, "At least it's different." Around was nothing but fog, rolling around me like smoke. Even the very surface I was standing on was simply a gray nothing, and I briefly imagined this to be what standing on one of Weiss's glyphs felt like. Thankfully, the fog didn't feel oppressive, only like an exceptional smoke screen.

 **Do not do that again.**

I nearly jumped out of my skin as the words reached me. Unlike the words I heard from the mysterious woman's lips, this next voice seemed to come out of my own head, as if they'd been planted in there. There was no sound to speak of.

It was weird, yet familiar, so I decided to respond out loud. "Uh, don't do what?"

 **You connected your soul to the Grimm and ordered it to cease. The Grimm are not within the power granted to you.**

"I-I wasn't trying to! All I wanted to do was get its attention!"

 **Regardless of your intent, do not repeat it. Doing so will only result in your soul being endangered.**

That woman. I would gladly obey if it meant never meeting her like that again. I openly shrugged as I answered, "Alright, I won't do it again. But can I ask you some questions?"

A moment's silence.

 **Speak quickly.**

I had about a hundred questions, really, but it wasn't hard to tell that the voice was only going to answer a few. I had to be picky. "First, who are you?"

 **I am one of two.**

I waited for it to elaborate, but several seconds passed and it didn't continue. How helpful. "Okay. Why did you give me this power? The Game, all of it?"

 **You have been tasked with stopping the Usurper.**

"The Usurper?"

 **The Queen of the Grimm.**

Oh, that woman *again.* So, no matter what, I'd be seeing her again? The thought was far from comforting. "Why give me the Game instead of somebody else?"

 **Replacement. Proper conditions were met.**

"I'm a replacement? For who?" Silence. It apparently didn't want to get into it. How many more questions would it answer? "Okay then, why has the system been messing up so much?"

 **The power granted to you became "The Game" in accordance to your mindset and adjusted appropriately, as a Semblance would. However, you believe that games work in a way incompatible with the power truly given to you. I shall attempt to correct this.**

That explained a fair number of my problems, actually. I still had more to ask, but the fog began to thicken and encroach upon me. What was-

 **You are awakening. Continue to grow, but do not forget your true goal.**

"Wait a minute, I-!" Suddenly, a wave of drowsiness hit me, and I my eyelids began to close on their own. I tried to fight it, but I just felt so sleepy. So… Sleepy…

* * *

My eyes opened slowly, searching for anything that wasn't "nothing" as I regained consciousness. Did I have a body? Yes, I could feel my fingers and toes wiggling. I could also feel something like a sheet on top of me; was I ina bed? Sitting up took far more effort than it normally did as my mind shook off the drowsiness that normally comes from oversleeping.

I didn't recognize the room I was in. There were eight beds, two rows of four each, and each having a curtain that looked like it could be pulled to ensure some privacy. Bright sunlight was pouring through one of the windows, illuminating the floor and a wall that featured a apparent medicine cabinet.

"I'm glad to see you awake, Mr. Arc." A feminine voice grabbed my attention; it belonged to a woman with short, chestnut-brown hair and a dark-blue outfit that modern nurses wear. I only remembered that they're called "scrubs" in hindsight. As she approached my bed she said, "You gave your team and the faculty quite the scare, falling unconscious in the Forever Fall forest. How do you feel?"

"Kinda groggy, I think," I answered with a large stretch. "How long have I been sleeping, ma'am?"

She glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's eleven forty-two A.M., so you've been out for about a whole day now. When you were brought to the infirmary you were completely unresponsive; thankfully, after an hour or so, you clearly shifted from 'unconscious' to merely 'asleep', so I haven't had to administer any particular treatment to you."

"Geez…" I was too tired to try and compare the given timeframe with what happened to me. "Is everyone else okay?"

"Mmhm. Your friends have been here almost all evening and morning. I just recently forced your partner out so that she could eat some food instead of fussing over you. Your team will be back soon, I'm sure."

The thought that Pyrrha was that worried about me made me simultaneously elated and depressed. At least she was grabbing some lunch-

 _Groooowl._

Embarrassment hit me like a bullhead as my stomach made my hunger known with enough force to wake the dead. The growl quickly turned into an actual cramp, my gut twisting itself into a brief knot. _'Oh, Gods, it feels like I haven't eaten in days. Wait, I've been eating practically nothing for weeks! Aren't I supposed to not feel hungry anymore?'_

The nurse (doctor?) made a wry comment about getting me some food from the cafeteria, but I ignored her as I tried to bring up the Game menu.

 **Currently downloading update. Estimated time for completion: 10 hours. All passives and skills that rely on Game User Interfaces are disabled until the system reboots.**

 _'Huh. At least my Developer is following through on his promise to patch things.'_ With that thought came the recollection of everything he or she told me.

A replacement. Chosen for some reason to take out the Queen of the Grimm. Before that day I'd only rarely considered the possibility of having the power for a specific reason, but now I had one.

And it was terrifying.

My job, my fate, was to challenge the woman responsible for all of the monsters in the world. I covered my face with my hands as I began to stress over it. Even with this crazy power and my dream of being a hero, I was only seventeen years old. Suddenly I'm responsible for cleansing the world of evil completely?

"Mr. Arc!" The nurse's voice shook me from my reverie, and she came close in order to examine me. "Are you okay? Please tell me anything that you can. It's my job, after all."

"No- I mean, I'm fine, ma'am. Just tired, stressed out, and hungry, that's all."

"Hm." She didn't seem to believe me, but she backed off regardless. "Well, I need to tell Professor Ozpin that you're awake now, but call out for me if you need something. My name is Doctor Cerulean."

So she was a full doctor, then. Whoops. "Yes ma'am. Thank you for everything."

The doctor stepped away and grabbed her scroll from a nearby desk, leaving me to my own thoughts. My alone time was short-lived, however, as the doors to the infirmary opened to admit three people wearing student uniforms. I smiled when I realized that they were my own teammates. Nora was carrying two food trays and animatedly talking to the others as they crossed the threshold. "-stand that you want Jaune healthy, Ren. We all want that! But poisoning him with one of your mixed drinks won't do anyone any favors!"

"For the last time, Nora, they are not poison."

Pyrrha set her own food tray down on a nearby bed as she tried to placate both sides. "What matters is the effort, Nora. I'm sure Jaune will be all the better for drinking…"

She trailed off as she looked at me, and I weakly lifted a hand in a lazy wave. "Uh, Morning guys. Any chance I've got something to eat there?"

Rather than receive a verbal reply, Pyrrha all but tackled me into the bed as she began smiling and fretting over me all at once. "Oh, thank goodness, you finally woke up! How are you feeling? Are you hurting?! Why-"

"Pyrrha, Pyrrha, I'm okay, calm-"

Nora was next, Ren deftly catching the abandoned trays before they hit the ground. "What happened, Jaune?! We all got this crazy message- I mean, I couldn't even _read_ mine it was so glitchy-"

"Girls." Ren's voice smoothly cut off the interrogation. "Jaune needs to breathe."

"Oh!" They both backed just out of my personal space, and I thanked the Gods for having a bro like Ren on my team. Pyrrha looked flustered for a moment, but that quickly turned back into concern. "Jaune, I'm so glad you're awake; but, what happened?"

I met what may or may not have been the devil. "I just blacked out, guys, I'm fine; well, besides feeling as hungry as a horse. Nora, what do you mean by crazy message?"

"It was so weird!" Nora stood as she began to gesture in time to her words. "Sky found us, right? Told us what was going on with those jerks. Then, Blake got this message saying 'thank you for playing the Game. Goodbye!' while Pyrrha saw something about a system error. My message was completely covered in gibberish! Before we found you, we…"

She trailed off very soberly, causing me to lean in and ask, "Before you found me what?"

"We thought you might've died," answered Ren in a somber tone. "Since it's your Semblance, something like a critical system error would mean that you had met with an unfortunate fate. We were grateful that the worst hadn't come to pass, but it still didn't bode well when you collapsed in front of us."

"I'm sorry, guys." I felt awful for having put them through that. I hadn't even thought about how the Game would respond to them with me down for the count. "I'm really tired, but otherwise I feel fine. Promise."

Pyrrha leaned in and brought me into a hug, which I returned with what strength I could summon. "Whatever you did, please don't it again."

"I won't, and an Arc always keeps their word."

"Okay." We stayed that way for a moment, until a knock on the infirmary door led us to separate. A beat later Ozpin walked in, infamous coffee mug missing for once. "Good morning, Professor."

"Good morning to you, Mr. Arc. It is comforting to see you awake."

"Glad to be awake, sir."

"Indeed." The Headmaster eyed my teammates one by one. "I'm sorry to cut your reunion short, but I'm afraid I need to hear your leader's description of events regarding yesterday. I'll allow you all back in once I'm done interviewing him."

NPR all looked uncomfortable about leaving me so soon, so I smiled and said, "It's okay, guys. I'll see you soon."

They all nodded and departed, leaving behind a tray that I assumed to be mine. Once they were gone, Ozpin stated simply, "Tell me everything you can. Leave out and alter nothing, young man."

I wasn't sure what my friends had told him about my Semblance, so I decided to hedge my description just a little as it still felt awkward to tell others that my life was being played like a game. "I had an allergic reaction to the tree sap, so Sky and I left to find a stream to wash myself off. When we got there, Cardin, Russell, and Dove launched some jars of that sap, one of which hit Sky in the chest. Cardin outright told us that they were attacking us, but a group of Ursai appeared before any fighting started. I sent Sky away after killing some of them, and helped Cardin eliminate the remaining few. I must've pushed myself too hard, because I blacked out without getting hit. And… That's it, sir."

"Hm." His expression gave away none of his thoughts. "According to Mr. Lark, Mr. Winchester stated that he would find killing you two acceptable. Is that true?"

"Yes, sir."

"I see." Ozpin released a frustrated sigh. "I had hoped to instill some humility in them through their initial punishment with Professor Port, but it is quite clear now that they will not change so readily."

I wanted to comment, but found that I had nothing to say. Trying to kill us because of Cardin's fragile ego? "Can I ask what will happen to them?"

"I will personally interrogate each one of them today and tomorrow, Mr. Arc. There may be an explanation for some of their actions, but the fact remains that they coldly calculated an attempted murder. That is unacceptable. Expulsion is almost certainly a given, while any further disciplinary action will depend on what they divulge to me."

I felt little remorse for their fates. They truly had brought it upon themselves, in the end; however, that still left one person in question. "But what about Sky? He'll be stuck without a team."

"That, I'm afraid, is up to him. All I can share with you is that he seemed quite shaken once his adrenaline ran its course."

With little wonder. His own team had tried to end his life. I'd definitely need to talk to him as soon as possible and try to make him feel better. "Okay. Are there any more questions, Professor? I'm pretty hungry right now, and that food smells amazing."

"As a matter of fact, I do have at least one more question. What can you tell me of the Grimm you slew?"

My eyes squinted with confusion. "They seemed like normal Grimm, sir: Big and angry. Why?"

"Because, Mr. Arc, one of them left its coat behind."

Blink. "I'm sorry?"

Ozpin smiled in amusement at my plain response. "Grimm fade when they are slain; yet, for the first time in recorded history, the outer skin and fur of one Ursa remains intact even to this moment. Not only that, several stacks of Lien were found sitting around the area. We initially believed it to be a prank of sorts, but both Mr. Lark and Mr. Thrush confirmed seeing you kill the Ursa, and the vertical cut along its underbelly matches what your sword would do to such a monster."

I continued staring blankly as he went on. "This is the first time mankind has been able to study a deceased Grimm, and we intend to do just that. I'm afraid that Professor Port seeks to use it as a prop for his classes, and young Valkyrie has made her own claim on account of a prophetic dream she allegedly had. It's potentially groundbreaking, yet humorous in a way."

Okay, what? The loot dropped from the Beowolves were just teeth, and only one per the occasional Grimm at that. But an Ursa I killed became a rug? "I, uh, don't know what to tell you, Professor. Except maybe not to give it to Nora, because I don't think I want that in our dorm room."

"Duly noted, Mr. Arc. I shall take my leave now. You are excused from classes today, and tomorrow if you feel ill at all. Good day to you, and recover well." Inclining his head just a hair as a nod, Ozpin left the infirmary quietly. I now felt tired enough to go back to sleep-

 _Growl_.

-but that food still smelled divine. My teammates returned a minute later, and Pyrrha helped me by setting the tray on my lap. It was a simple steak and potatoes meal with peas, but it still tasted like the best lunch I'd had in months. I guess the people that say "Hunger is the best spice" are right.

We chatted as I ate, and once my lunch was consumed they bid farewell in order to attend combat class now that I was conscious. They departed with a promise to share the good news with team RWBY, and with Doctor Cerulean in her office I had nothing left to do but rest. Deciding to think about the difficult things later, I covered myself with the simple bedsheets and laid back down.

As sleep took me into its warm embrace, I pondered what kind of changes would occur with the Game patched. At least there was somebody working on it.

X

I want to be strong. I want to be feared. I want to be _powerful_.

Those are the words Cinder Fall had sworn by when Salem took her under her wing. She refused to be at the mercy of another person ever again, and she was well on the way to making that goal a reality. Relaxing in her chair in a hidden warehouse, she allowed the power of the Fall Maiden to flow to her palm and appear as a flame. It was a shame the process of acquiring what belonged to her had been interrupted, but even now she could appreciate the incomplete power for what it was.

Incredible. Liberating.

Roman was out and about doing his job while Emerald and Mercury were enjoying a rare day off. They had been well-behaved as of late, and there was little that required their immediate attention.

 _Bzzt. Bzzt._

Her scroll buzzed, and she glanced at the message she received.

 _Watts: The Mistress sends a message._

Salem wished to speak on the Seer Grimm? Their last communication had been not that long ago, and Salem was hardly one to check in frequently unless a situation changed. Deciding it prudent to not dally, Cinder promptly vacated her seat and retreated to one of the back rooms of the building. In the middle of a locked room she had set aside solely for this purpose floated a unique, many tentacled creature with a dark, crystal ball as a head. Many people would see this Grimm and cower in confusion and fright.

It was just another Grimm to her. Stepping close enough for it to register her presence, the purple swirls within the orb withdrew, revealing the pale face of her Mistress. _"_ _Ah, Cinder. How are the preparations for retrieving the relic and the maiden?"_

"Proceeding just as planned, Mistress. The seeds of discord are being sewn within the common people, and we shall be infiltrating Beacon at the beginning of this year's second semester. Has something changed that I should know about?"

 _"Indeed. Yesterday I discovered the fabric of a human's essence within one of the spawning pools. It would appear that they issued a command to one of my Grimm, sending their soul here in process."_

Cinder's eyes widened in commanding one of the Grimm without Salem's blessing, and sending their very being into the Grimmlands, besides? "But Mistress, that's-"

 _"Impossible, obviously, yet it happened anyways."_ She didn't appear to be upset about the occurrence; which was good, Cinder supposed. _"I have reason to believe that the one who did it attends Beacon as a student. I do not now if Ozpin is aware of what strange boy or girl walks his halls, but I have no intention of simply allowing him to have them."_

"What would you have me do?"

 _"Infiltrate Beacon as soon as possible,find the one who accomplished this feat, and turn them to our cause. Use whatever method you see fit for the situation, but it would be better for them to join us willingly. This power they possess, it intrigues me. Make it yours and ours."_

Cinder felt a flash of annoyance at the need to accelerate her plans, but she quickly squashed it. This was an order, and she would obey. Plus, if she were to be honest, the possibilities of what this strange power could be had peaked her curiosity. "By your will, Mistress."

 _"Good. For reference, I have the description of a girl that I believe is the wielder's teammate."_ Salem quickly reeled off the details she'd noted, and Cinder mentally filed it away. It would lower the number of suspects by a substantial amount, which she was grateful for. _"Do not fail me in this task, Cinder. I shall be checking in on this when able, through Watts if I must."_

Salem must truly want whatever person did this. "It shall be done. Farewell."

With that said the image of Salem vanished, causing the Seer Grimm to lower itself to the ground and become dormant once more. Cinder left the room, making sure to engage all of the locks before departing, and swiftly found Emerald's contact information in her scroll. If this was to be done properly, they had no time to waste.

Emerald picked up within two rings, her face appearing on the small screen. "Ma'am? Is something the matter?"

"Yes, Emerald. We've acquired a new objective, but it requires that we enter Beacon with all due haste. Return to base with Mercury and finish your preparations for entering as Haven students. I'll ensure that Lionheart has our transcripts ready at once."

If Emerald had a complaint, she wisely kept it to herself. "Yes, ma'am. May I ask what it is we're going in so early for?"

"Not what, Emerald; who." A familiar smirk crossed Cinder's features. "And it looks to be somebody quite interesting."

X

 **Estimated time for update completion: 5 minutes.**

"Are you sure you're okay to stay up longer, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked me that despite already knowing my answer. I understood that she was worried, of course, but there's a limit to these things. "I'm glad that you'll be up to attending classes tomorrow, but that only means you need more rest now."

"Pyrrha, I've been sleeping so much today that I'm not tired anymore. I'll go to bed in a an hour or so, okay?" Ren and Nora had already tucked themselves in, and I gently encouraged Pyrrha to follow suit. "I just want to see how my Semblance acts once it comes back on."

"If you say so. Good night, Jaune."

"Night, Pyr." She smiled at that, bidding me goodbye by pulling her sheets over her head. Satisfied that she would fall asleep soon, I sat myself cross-legged on my bed and focused. My Aura rippled through my body and began to center in my palms. I held it there and began to build it, and after four seconds the intensity of it ceased to increase. So even with the Game down, I could still use some of my active skills like the Hadouken as long as I recalled how my Aura felt doing the action. That was good to know, as long as the system failing didn't knock me unconscious again.

Allowing the accumulated Aura to recede without firing it, I laid back into my pillow and just waited for the system reboot to occur. I'd tried to find Sky once classes let out for everyone, but he'd been pretty difficult to find. All I could do was hope that he was alright. _'Would he still want to attend Beacon after this? I don't know much about his motivations, but being betrayed would definitely put doubts in anyone's mind.'_

 **System update complete. Now re-initializing the Game.**

It was finally time! I sat back up, honestly feeling a little excited despite everything that had occurred.

 **Loading…**

 **Complete.**

 **Hello! Welcome to version 2.0 of "The Game!" We apologize for the many inconveniences, and hope that you can use the system well moving forward.**

That was a little different. Had the system messages ever been so pleasant in tone before?

 **V.2.0 changes.**

 **The definitions and AP costs of your skills have been reevaluated to ensure maximum accuracy in their details. Most notably, please check the description of Gamer's Mind, as it has been altered to reduce the number of associated bugs.**

 **The values of your stats have been reevaluated for maximum accuracy. Please examine your status and prepare accordingly.**

 **UI changes to streamline certain selection processes and remove unintended additions to the Game.**

 _'Good deal, now hopefully things will make some sense-'_

 **New! We have added a basic tutorial and in-game explanations! If you have any questions about a particular feature, simply "ask" and details will be provided for you.**

 **Thank you for continuing to play the Game! Good luck.**

Wait. I'd been playing this whole time and was only now getting a tutorial?! Son of a-!

X

 **Jaune has completed his tutorial stages, in a sense. Time for chapter one of his story!**

 **I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm glad that I didn't leave everyone sitting on that cliffhanger for longer than necessary. Please consider leaving a review and telling me how I did! Seeing their flaws is the only way writers can improve.**

 **Until next time, GG!**


	20. Chapter 19 - What's in a Skill?

**You'll notice a distinct lack of numbers this chapter. That's only so I can focus on introducing some plot threads that will be relevant moving forward. All the delicious, Gamer goodness will be back next time.**

 **GL; HF!**

 **X**

Sky sighed for the umpteenth time that day. He was alone, his legs dangling off the edge of the Beacon grounds as he looked out into the city of Vale. The afternoon Sun was warm on his skin, about the only nice thing he felt at that moment.

" _You're gonna pay for making fools out of us, out of_ me. _And if you die? Well, I'm sure the teachers will understand that the Grimm found you pretty tasty."_

Sky opened and closed his right palm, trying the get rid of the slight shaking that was present. _'I'm not anxious, it's over now. I'm not anxious, it's over now…'_

Naturally, it didn't help one bit. The fact that Cardin had been willing to _kill_ him just because he stood up to his bullying nature had his nerves on edge all of the previous night. Cardin escaping the custody of the Beacon staff was a ludicrous thought, but even knowing that did little to appease his fear.

Sky Lark hated being alone; yet, here he was without a team anymore.

"Hey, there you are."

He turned his head to the voice, which belonged to the one and only Jaune Arc. He was wearing the Beacon blazer, like Sky himself, and gave a casual wave as he got close. "Did you know that Beacon has a whole bunch of little hiding places? It made for a great game of hide and seek."

Sky chuckled lightly. "Should you be running around so soon, sleeping beauty?"

"Hey, I actually woke up yesterday, thank you." Jaune sat down, joining him in his cliffside city watching. They stayed in silence for a minute, with Sky bracing for the inevitable questions. "So," finally started Jaune, "how are you holding up?"

"...Not that great," came the honest answer. "Professor Ozpin told me that they're now officially expelled. As of a few hours ago, the staff just needed to confirm a few things with their families before shipping them home."

"Hm." Jaune grimaced before quickly returning to neutral. "Where does that leave you?"

Sky leaned back until his head touched the ground, staring up into the cloudless world above. "Teamless. I've got a few options: I can be a tag along for some other teams on their missions, I can put myself into some type of mentorship program with one of the teachers, or…"

"Or?"

"Or I can quit."

He felt Jaune shift to look down at him in surprise. "Please tell me you're joking."

"Nope." He took a deep breath, turning his head to look at his friend. "I'd be allowed to come back next year, try again with a new team and all that. Then again, I could also leave and just not come back. Not gonna lie, man, I'm kinda freaked out right now."

Jaune bent his left knee and rested his head on it in thought. "Yeah, I can see why. Look, Sky, I- I can't tell you what you should do. All I can say is that if you left, the rest of us would miss you."

Sky snorted, though it wasn't with any ill will. "Probably not that much, after a while."

"I dunno, Velvet was looking pretty concerned in Oobleck's class."

Surprise. "Velvet was?"

"Mhm. It seems the whole school knows the gist of what happened, and it looked kinda bad that 'sleeping beauty' was attending class while you were still absent."

"Huh." Sky wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. "That reminds me, why _did_ you pass out? All the others told me is that it had something to do with your Semblance."

"I had some, uh, growing pains with it, and pushing myself that hard didn't do me any favors." He shrugged. "I should have it under control now, though. I'll tell you more about it later."

"Sounds good." Sky rose to his feet, dusting off his jacket before turning to look at Beacon. It truly was a majestic place, in his opinion, and a part of him wanted to stick around if only to study the architecture. He was weird like that, in his father's words.

' _My father…'_

He shook his head. Those were thoughts for later. "Thanks for the talk, Jaune. Sorry you spent so much time just looking for me."

"Hey, any way I can help, I will." Jaune flashed a grin as he pat Sky's shoulder. "I'm about to head back to my team and-"

He stopped mid-sentence before looking around for a moment. "Actually, can you do me a favor, Sky?"

"Shoot."

"You're about to see me pull something off with my Semblance. Next time you see me, would you mind telling me how things looked from your point of view?"

Sky blinked. "Uh, sure, I guess. But why not just tell you now?"

"You'll see in a sec." Jaune spied a small boulder and walked over to it. Squatting down, he placed his hand flat on top of it, the boulder being maybe half-covered. "Alright, I'll see you later man."

"Wait, what?" Right then, the wind seemed to pick up a bit around Jaune. His hair began to sway as _something_ began to build in the air.

And then Jaune was gone.

That was it; one second there, the next not. Sky couldn't help but gape, and when he walked to where his friend had been standing and waved his hands around, he felt naught but air. What the _hell_ did he just do?! He regained his composure after a minute, shifting from bewildered to excited about the possibilities behind teleporting, if that's what Jaune did. As he began walking back to his (and only his) dorm, he paused just long enough to check his hand.

At least he wasn't shaking anymore. Maybe that was a hint towards his answer.

 **X**

For a brief moment, I felt completely weightless. As a whirlwind of colors passed by me, it felt like I could almost flap my arms a little and fly away if I wanted to.

Then life, gravity, and reality returned all at once and my feet slammed into carpeted floor, leaving me off balance as I tried to regain my bearings. I wound up dropping to one knee, but managed to avoid falling completely as I used the boulder I'd been touching for balance. "Note to self, maybe have more stable footing the next time I use Farore's Wind."

 **That would be wise.**

I brushed myself off as I took in my surroundings, having returned to JNPR's room as intended. "At least the skill works as advertised; still, I might have to be careful of where I set the return points. I'd hate to think about what would happen if I teleported _into_ somebody."

 **You might be picking up pieces of people off of the ground**.

"Lovely thought." Ever since the Game rebooted, I'd been dealing with this snarky voice in my head. Well, it wasn't really a voice, it just sort of "planted" the words it wanted me to hear in my head. At first, I'd thought that having direct communication with my (the?) developer would be a good thing; but, outside of explaining some things about the Game when I asked about them, the developer had chosen to be fairly unhelpful.

The door to the room unlocked and opened to reveal Ren, who gave me a casual nod while he walked to his closet. "How did your talk with Sky go?"

"I'm not sure that I was much help, but I think he'll be okay." Observe had informed me that he was pretty bad off, but it wasn't the type of problem I could fix for him. Only Sky could decide Sky's fate. "I thought you were making dinner?"

"I am, I just came back to retrieve some red syrup for Nora's pancakes." He held up the jar in question, which I politely gave a wide berth. As he smiled at my obvious reaction, he glanced down and noticed the boulder. "Did you bring that in here?"

"Ah, yeah, I did. Hold on, I'll get rid of it." I leaned down while opening the inventory, quickly causing the rock to disappear into a storage space. "There we go. Let's go eat, shall we?"

"Let's." I fell into step beside Ren as we continued chatting. "May I ask what the rock was for?"

"Nope! Top secret." I put a finger to my lips, which only made Ren roll his eyes. "It's just a skill thing, really. Please don't tell Pyrrha, though."

"Worried about her reaction?"

"Yeah, just a little. She might think I'm pushing myself too hard if she finds out that I'm experimenting with my power."

"Think about it from her perspective, Jaune. Her partner passed out after everyone received error messages filled with glitches. I'm worried about you as well, but I'm trusting that you know your limits better now."

"Thanks, Ren. That means a lot." And it really did. As we walked, a question arose. "Ren, I need an opinion. If you could borrow one of our friends' Semblances without it affecting them, whose would you use?"

Ren slowed down as he thought about it. "Were it anybody else asking, that would be a 'for fun' question. But with your Semblance in mind…"

"I'm not doing anything big, really." I put my hands up defensively on reflex. "At least right now, nothing's going on. This is a question for down the line."

 **Although with Pyrrha seeing you as her Partner and "potential Partner"...**

I didn't want to think about that, so I ignored it as I stopped walking for a moment. "Humor me, Ren?"

"Hm." He stopped beside me, thankfully indulging my not-so-idle curiosity. "Personally, I could see myself using Blake's clones to good effect, as well as Weiss's Glyphs. However, Weiss mentioned offhand that her Glyphs took a substantial amount of practice to get to her current level. Seeing as she's likely had it for years, I'm not sure I'd have the time to devote to learning it so thoroughly. Hypothetically, of course."

"Right, that makes sense." Although I didn't doubt that Ren could handle Weiss's powers, something like Blake's could suit him better anyways. It would help him avoid getting hit, which he needed with his low CON. "For me, I was thinking that Ruby's would be nice. Super speed always seemed like a cool power in the comics, and we've seen her do some neat things with it."

"Mhm." Ren began to walk again, although we were almost to the common room anyways. "So, if I may ask, what's the condition for you supposedly borrowing one of our Semblances?"

 **Partner**.

"Oh, uh, just to get a bit stronger. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention it to anyone and get their expectations up. It might not happen for a long time."

"I suppose." To this day, I'm not sure how much Ren actually believed me when I answered like that. "Well, in the meantime, would you mind helping me cook?"

"Sure thing, just please keep that stuff away." Ren quietly shifted the jar of syrup closer to me, prompting me to scoot away a few steps as we joined up with our friends. Nora was already drooling at the sight of the bottle, team RWBY were chatting amongst themselves for the moment, and I smiled politely when I met Pyrrha's gaze. "I hear we need some kitchen staff?"

She chuckled lightly. "I was afraid of what would happen if Ren didn't return. Are you helping him?"

"Yep, I think I'll hit the ham and eggs. Might as well do breakfast for dinner, right?"

"That sounds delicious, but-"

She started to rise from her seat, so I quickly waved her down. "Pyrrha, I'm fine to cook, okay? I'm back to full health."

"I suppose." She sat back down, and I tried to settle the frustration in the back of my head. I knew she was just worried about me, which was nice of her, but I didn't really want to be babied.

Especially since I knew how she felt now.

 **X**

As a pair of glass heels clinked along the warehouse floor, Neo had to fight to stop herself from attacking the witch in red on the spot. She wanted to, oh she _definitely_ wanted to, but it was a fight she wouldn't win. Cinder had already shown how powerful she was before. If she was to attack, she would need to kill her with the first stab, because their wouldn't be a second. "Roman," Cinder said with an almost sultry purr. Almost. "How goes our little acquisition project?"

Roman Torchwick rolled his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. It wasn't lit, but it would be the second the witch took off on her broom. "Worse than even I expected. You sure know how to pick the wrong animals to work with."

The smirk on Cinder's face ghosted away. "That's not what I wanted to hear, for your sake."

"It's not just their incompetence, laziness, or being flat stupid, Cinder; this one little piggy in the group is trying to get the others to stop listening to me at all." Roman shook his head as he sat back on one of the many, many crates around. "This last heist I did over on Yellow Brick Road? Taurus himself had to be _in the damn van_ to inspire them to work."

Cinder's frown deepened, but at least Neo could tell that it wasn't aimed at them directly. "And Adam is allowing this dissension to persist?"

"I think our bull gets off on it. Yeah, he knows things need to get done, but having one of his little henchmen be one hundred percent anti-human is making him too happy to take the pig out." Oh? Roman was daring to light the cigar in front of Cinder. And she wasn't smiting him for it! Miracle of miracles! "It won't matter how fast I work if the minions are rebelling against me. I was hoping you could talk to the happy family and get things straightened out."

Cinder crossed her arms as she pondered this new information. "I'd dared to hope that you could wrangle the Fang on your own, Roman, but I suppose Adam encouraging one to rebel would fall into my hands. Very well; I shall take care of that little issue, but I'm afraid that the Fang isn't the true reason I needed to talk to you tonight."

"Oh, really? Finally decided you wanted to turn your charm on for me, dear?"

And that's how you push a button too hard, Roman. Neo could only wince as Cinder not-so-subtly grabbed Roman's chin and yanked it down. Could she hear his skin sizzling, or was that her imagination? "Mind your tongue, _Roman_ , lest I feel encouraged to rip it out. No, I'm afraid that I need Neo to 'transfer' into Beacon alongside myself and my disciples."

Neo only blinked where she stood. She was doing what now? To her boss's credit, he showed no reaction to whatever pain her heat was inflicting upon him. "Transfer? You want Neo to pretend she's a student? Wonderful, so I'm going to lose my best employee."

Cinder released his chin, though not without her nail leaving a scratch in the process of taking the cigar from his mouth and stepping on it. "A simple cover story will have her free on the weekends and odd nights. All you need is to continue doing your job."

"Fine, as you wish your majesty." Roman got himself comfortable on the crate again, one leg over the other. "And when does she have to be ready by?"

"Monday."

"Monday?" A trimmed eyebrow rose as Roman considered it. "That's quite the rush job. And just what could have you so anxious to have Neo in a uniform?"

"A target," came the simple answer. "Truthfully, even I am hesitant to withdraw Neo from the field full-time; but having only three members of a team transfer in at this point would be quite suspicious, even more so given that Beacon's semester only started some weeks ago."

"Ah. And I suppose Neo's cover story will be part of the reason your team transferring at all would make sense." It made sense to Neo. She could already see the line to be used: "I have family in Vale to take care of, so the headmaster gave us special permission to blah blah sap story." She didn't like it, but it made sense.

"Alright," answered Roman, "I'll make sure she has some duds. What school is our magical new team from?"

"Haven. The headmaster there has already made some useful documents showing us to be quite the advanced team for first years." Damn, Cinder already had a headmaster under her thumb? Who _wasn't_ she manipulating these days. "If it helps, Neo has no reason to be in disguise for our duration as students. There isn't a soul in the school that would be aware of her. Keeping up a Semblance illusion for an extended time would drain her, no?"

It actually wouldn't, not to a great extent, but neither she nor Roman were about to reveal that card. Neo idly wondered where she'd gotten that impression. "Sounds like a plan. Just swing by with her paperwork, we'll be ready by then."

Cinder only nodded before turning on one heel and departing with no great haste. It was so slow that it was almost like she was daring Neo to go at her; still, she stayed her hand, at least until the woman left. As soon as the door closed behind her, however, Neo made sure to flip her the double bird.

"Yeah, I hear you Neo, but it's not like we can do anything about it." Roman spared a glance for his ruined cigar before extracting another from his pocket and lighting it. "Still, she wants you ready in three days? She's in one hell of a hurry for her so-called target."

Neo nodded in agreement, using sign language to respond. Did he have any ideas?

"Not a clue." Roman placed his elbow on his raised leg, his head coming to rest on a closed fist as he thought things over. "Neo, pay attention to who _she_ pays attention to. See if you can find out what it is she wants so badly."

She leaned against the wall with a frown. That was fine and all, but sitting in classes? She was doomed to be bored out of her skull!

"Heh, sorry kid. Maybe you can find some way to entertain yourself while you're there." He frowned as Neo's face lit up. "Except killing a student. We don't need a bunch of Huntsmen coming down on us."

Damn. So, all she had to do was be a good little student and spy on the dastardly witch while not getting to bored enough to knock some skulls around. It sounded like so much fun. Yay.

As Neo brought out her scroll to look up what Haven Academy's uniforms were like, she only hoped she could find something or someone to entertain her while she played her role.


End file.
